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The pump price rose further, setting a new record. A slight decrease is expected, however, thanks to milder weather.

The price of gasoline in service stations continue to soar and reach new highs that could revive the debate on the control of labels at the pump with the approach of presidential elections.

According to data released Tuesday by the Ministry of Sustainable Development, the price of a liter of unleaded 95 euro rose to 1.5787 at the end of last week. That of unleaded 98 (whose sales are much lower in SP95) rose to 1.6184 euro. Both well beyond their previous records set only a week earlier (1.5640 euros / liter and 1.6022 euros / liter). Gas oil meanwhile rose to 1.4180 euro per liter Friday against 1.3960 the previous week. But it remains below its high of the year (1.4240 euro on Jan. 13), and its record in spring 2008 (1.4541 euro). These sales prices are national averages calculated by the Directorate General for Energy and Climate (DGEC) from data provided by service stations.

Since late 2011, gasoline prices prance record after record in France, powered by a dual effect of geopolitical tensions (Iran, Nigeria …) that keep crude oil prices at very high levels, and the weakening of the euro against the dollar, which boosts the cost of black gold once its converted value in the single currency.

The outbreak has already made waves in its presidential campaign. The Socialist candidate Francois Hollande proposed last month a "temporary blocking of gasoline prices," accompanied by restoration of the TIPP floating. The majority swept the idea of ​​such measures, described as "solution of the past".

Hope to decrease with rise in temperature

Interviewed on RTL on the soaring prices at the pump just before the announcement of the last record, the CEO of Total Christophe de Margerie said Tuesday that the best way to lower gasoline was to invest in finding new deposits. "The more oil, the more prices will be kept low," he said, criticizing the way the idea of ​​a price freeze. "For any product, it's not a good thing to lock in prices" and "this is automatically the state budget will suffer," he said. Total's boss noted that his group controlled a little less than 20% of French stations, and over half of them set their own rates.

He also estimated that prices could fall thanks to the current warm spell. "In the short term it may fall, when it's warmer, prices drop, today one of the reasons among others of higher pump prices, it's climate, weather extremes we known in recent times, "said Mr. de Margerie. "If the euro also firmed, it will drop, but overall as in all businesses, (the solution, note) is to get more raw materials," he said.

Diesel sales represent about 80% of French consumption of motor fuels, the unleaded 95 just under 15% and 98 unleaded around 5%.

European stock markets have reduced their losses Tuesday after the session to finish close to balance, investors hoping for a swift agreement on Greece's second bailout of the country .

In Paris the CAC 40 index managed to stay above the threshold of 3,400 points, taking 0.14% to 3,409,90 points after spending much of the session negative territory. In Frankfurt the Dax gave 0.16%, while the FTSE in London lost 0.03% Pan-European and Euro Stoxx 50 index has been 0.25%.

A Greek government official reported that Athens was finalizing a document that outlines the reforms demanded by its lenders in exchange for the payment of the second plan bailout of 130 billion euros.

On currency markets, this information has boosted the euro, which reached its highest since mid-December.

The Stoxx Europe 600 bank of erased its losses to finish up 0.47%, with gains between 1.2% and 2.1% for BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole.

Conversely, UBS fell 1.44% in volume fed. The Swiss bank fears a difficult start after reporting lackluster figures for its fourth quarter 2011.

Swatch has lost nearly 4% after announcing an operating profit of 1.61 billion Swiss francs in 2011, slightly below expectations.

On Wall Street, the Dow, the S & P and the Nasdaq composite earn around 0.2% to 1630 GMT.

Bunds have erased their gains on the information of progress towards a political agreement with Greece on the financial rescue of the country.

The Euribor fell to new lows of 11 months in prospect of another massive injection of liquidity into the banking system by the European Central Bank, at its next auction paper to three years scheduled for late February. 

The euro has climbed more than 1% to 1.32708 to the dollar on the electronic platform EBS, its highest level since mid-December.

"The information from Greece to Athens remove an obstacle to alleviate short-term and massive credit risk, which is positive for the euro," noted Boris Schlossberg director of currency research at GFT.

Brent crude rose around 116 dollars a barrel, still carried by the cold wave in Europe, tensions on Iran's nuclear program and turmoil in Syria.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange closed up 1.1% Monday, posting a higher closing three months, driven by good performance of the U.S. labor market.

The Nikkei gained 97.27 points to 8,929.20 points and the Topix broader took 9.16 points (1.2%) to 769.85 points.

"It's pretty good for exporters," said Nicholas Smith, a specialist at CLSA Japan, commenting on the monthly report on employment in the United States that showed Friday that unemployment had fallen ; to its lowest level in nearly three years.

Panasonic has taken the title of the session 6.34% after touching a low of more than 30 years Friday, in response to a forecast of record annual loss amounting to ; eight billion euros.

The new car registrations in France in January will charge lower double-digit annual rate, officials said Tuesday the source of the sector, a result of lackluster growth and the unfavorable comparison with the dice 2011 goal. </ p> Final figures for car registrations for the month ending will be published Wednesday by the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers (CCFA). Several manufacturers have already said to expect a contraction in sales since January 2011 had been supported by the effect of 'scrapping'. </ P> "The trend will be negative overall, with double-digit declines, "the source said, adding that it refers only to cars and not to registrations of light commercial vehicles in the Hexagon. </ p> Asked if the double-digit decline would apply to the entire market, the source replied "yes." </ p> <p > In December, the French car market fell by 17.8% year on year. Vans had fared better, rising 1.6%. </ P> The business daily La Tribune Online, quoting unofficial sources, wrote Monday that the brand Renault in January would record a decline of 45% of its registrations, Peugeot and Citroen (PSA) declines of respectively 37% and 31%, and Dacia, the brand Renault's low cost, a decrease of 18%. " / p> The two French manufacturers have refused to comment. </ p> "These figures do not cover the last days of the month and are compared to calculations extrapolated back 're marketing services, "he told Reuters François Roudier, spokesman for the CCFA. "It is far less reliable than the actual count of sales to be published tomorrow." </ P> According to La Tribune, German Volkswagen would still pulled out of the game in January with up 23% of car registrations in France. </ p> In exchange, after signing a time the largest declines in the CAC 40 in the morning, Renault took the action 0.76% to 32.95 euros and the title PSA yielded no more than 0.32% to 14.055 euros. The sector index values ​​gained 1.2% European cars. </ P>

After Moody's and Standard and Poor's, the third major rating agency, Fitch said Wednesday that a possible worsening of the crisis in the euro area could threaten the note "triple A" of France.

The return of the French debt to 10 years who had scarcely changed after the publication of this note was then increased to about 3.68% to 16.45, the yield differential with Germany (the "spread") oscillating around 165 basis points. It was over 200 points last week for the first time since the creation of the euro.

"According to Fitch's central scenario, the numbers of French public finances remain consistent with the conservation of its AAA rating," writes the rating agency.

The gross debt of the country in this case could reach the upper limit of the range that Fitch considers consistent with a AAA rating – if this level is temporary and decline thereafter – 90 to 100% of GDP.

"If all of the 158.5 billion euros in France's commitments to the EFSF was disbursed, the gross public debt would reach 98.2% of GDP in 2014, the top of the range compatible with its status as a AAA "Fitch wrote.

"However, based on net debt and if the loans were accounted EFSF (with a discount of 50%) as liquid assets, the debt would peak at just over 80% of GDP in 2014.

The European Union has increased the pressure on Sunday in Athens Greece quickly establishes a government of national unity and implement the measures included in the second bailout of the country, saying that membership in the euro area was Thurs

"We called for a national unity government, is convinced that it is the convincing way to restore confidence and to honor commitments," he told Reuters Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and monetary.

With the announcement of a proposed referendum on the bailout plan, since abandoned, Greece had broken the bond of trust that binds to its European partners last week, which called into question his membership in the euro area, he said.

But the country has apparently abandoned the strategy of the edge, Olli Rehn said in a telephone interview.

"There have been efforts to Athens to restore that trust and we need a compelling report on the subject of the finance minister Evangelos Venizelos tomorrow during the Euro."

The 17 finance ministers of the euro area can be found Monday evening in Brussels for a meeting of the Eurogroup.

NEGOTIATIONS TO ATHENS

Olli Rehn was speaking Greek political parties then negotiated fiercely on Sunday a coalition agreement may prove to other countries in the euro zone as Greece is determined to continue on the path of austerity to avoid bankruptcy.

PPR reported Wednesday a very strong sales of its luxury brands in the third quarter, while its retail brands have suffered from the deterioration of the economic environment in France and southern Europe.

The group, which owns Gucci, Puma, Fnac and Redcats, saw sales grow by 8% to 3.86 billion euros, higher than the consensus of analysts polled by Reuters (3.8 billion).Organic growth stood at 7% instead of 5.4% expected.

Especially, the group surprised by organic growth well above the expectations in luxury (Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga), where it reached 25% (23% after the first half) instead of the anticipated 19% .

The only Gucci brand, which accounts for nearly 60% of operating profit of the group, grew by 21% (22% in first half).

The Chief Financial Officer, Jean-François Palus, said during a conference call that the dynamics remained equally strong in luxury in October and was confident for 2012.

In contrast, the performance degradation of Fnac and Redcats has accelerated.Sealed by the drop in consumption in France and Southern Europe, the distributor's sales of cultural products were down 4.2% on a comparable basis. Those of the cluster distance selling (La Redoute, Vertbaudet and Cyrillus) fell 5.6%.

PPR, which wants to focus on luxury and sports fashion by selling its retail brands, was forced, with the deterioration of access to credit due to the crisis, to postpone the sale of Redcats.

The group, which has designs on Brioni, continuing discussions with the Italian tailor, said Chief Financial Officer without elaborating.

The sporting goods company Puma, which released its figures on Tuesday reported a 10% increase in sales in the third quarter.

Seb SA said Tuesday it had been allowed to increase stake in its Chinese subsidiary Zhejiang Supor Co, which will allow the French leader of small appliances to enjoy strong growth in Asia.

The group, which had signed a contract with the founding shareholders of Supor last February, will raise its stake from 51.3% to 71.3% in Supor for about $ 400 million.

The family kept a 12.5% ​​stake, the balance comprising the float.

The Board of Supor, which will remain publicly traded, will not change, headed by Su Xianze.

Seb, entered the Chinese capital in 2007, having realized the operation in the coming weeks.The green light for the operation followed a period of review conducted by the CSRC (Authority of Chinese stock market).

The action of the French group has closed up 1.07% to 59.41 euros on the Paris Stock Exchange, giving a market capitalization of 2.97 billion. It was down 23.6% since the beginning of the year.

The weekly jobless claims rose against all odds in the United States during the week to September 10, at 428,000 against 417,000 the previous week, said Thursday the Labor Department.

Economists on average had expected 410,000 jobless.

Registration of the week to September 3 were revised up from an initial estimate of 414,000.

The moving average of four weeks stood at 419,500 against 415,500 (revised) the previous week.

The number of people receiving regular benefits rose to 3.726 million during the week to September 3 (last week for which figures are available) against 3,738,000 the previous week.

It is "imperative" to implement the decisions taken by Heads of State and Government of the euro zone in July to resolve the debt crisis of the Greek said Monday Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the Central Bank (ECB).

European stock markets were down sharply again Monday because of growing doubts about the application of the support plan for Greece developed at the summit on 21 July.

"It is clear that we absolutely need an immediate and imperative that all these decisions are implemented immediately," said Jean-Claude Trichet at a conference of the Institut Montaigne, a "think tank" in Paris.

"One of the strongest recommendations," he said, "is to implement the most comprehensive and rigorous as possible, so no doubt, decisions which have been taken."

The plan of July 21, supposed to give the euro area financial and institutional resources that would enable it to avoid contagion Greek throughout the euro area, must, to come out, be ratified by parliament each of the signatory countries.

But the political obstacles to such ratification have multiplied in recent weeks.Finland wishes and its contribution to the plan is guaranteed by Greek and Athens, Slovakia, the vote of the parliament could only take place in December.

These uncertainties prevent an immediate strengthening of the financial resources of the European Financial Stability (EFSF), which must be able to buy government bonds to support countries in need.

"WE ARE HALFWAY"

Jean-Claude Trichet said more broadly in the global goal to increase "resilience" of individual entities, financial institutions, banks and financial system, "we are half way" .

"We see that we have made significant progress," he said, citing the progress made in the G20, the Financial Stability Forum and the Basel rules on capital III of financial institutions under discussion.

"All our experience leads us to believe that we must implement what was decided and certainly not think that could shake the hand, it would probably be the biggest mistake we can do," he said.

"There are still many things to do, particularly at the Basle Committee, the Financial Stability Forum and the G20 level, particularly with regard to systemic global institutions and national and non-banks."

Jean-Claude Trichet referred again to the slopes for the medium-and long-term European governance.

It is thus, in his opinion, possible to imagine the future that decisions are taken "from the center of the single market to single currency" when a country is unable to implement the recommendations persistent.

Even further in the future, it is possible to imagine the creation of a European confederation, with a confederal government, including a European Minister of Finance.

Jean-Claude Trichet on the other hand raised the issue "important" the need for continuing structural reforms in Europe to increase the growth potential of the continent, citing in particular the Lisbon agenda for growth.