Speaking in Paris, Weidmann declined to comment on U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s remarks that the U.S. central bank may start to trim its bond purchases at one of its next policy meetings.

Focusing on the situation in the euro zone he said: “Monetary policy, that is to say the Eurosystem (of euro zone central banks) has already done a lot to curtail the crisis.”

“But monetary policy cannot solve the crisis, we are completely united on that in the ECB Governing Council,” Weidmann, a member of the policymaking body, told a conference.

Weidmann made his comments after another ECB policymaker, Peter Praet, said the bank could try new policies if needed to battle deflation risks and that it was weighing up measures to encourage more lending in the euro zone.

“The origins of the crisis are structural in nature,” said Weidmann, an inflation hawk who wants to keep pressure on governments to reform and cut their deficits rather than risk the ECB overreaching in its policy response.

“Therefore, only structural measures can solve the crisis … The Eurosystem (of euro zone central banks) has bought European governments time to solve the crisis.”

Weidmann said all central banks had reacted to an “extraordinary crisis” with “extraordinary policy measures”, but declined to comment on Bernanke’s remarks.

Bernanke sent stock markets tumbling after he said on Wednesday that the U.S. central bank may start to trim its bond purchases at one of its next policy meetings.

Asked to comment about Japan’s new monetary policy and its pledge to increase base money, Weidmann said: “I wish the Japanese good luck in their experiments, they certainly have a challenge of debt sustainability.”

Weidmann, an inflation hawk, warned euro zone states against going for easy solutions and depending too much on monetary policy rather than pursuing structural reforms.

Euro zone states must ensure they have solid public finances in order for the European Central Bank to be able to do its job of ensuring price stability, he said.

The ECB is concerned that banks, worried about taking on risk, are not lending to smaller businesses in the euro zone periphery and has set up a taskforce with the European Investment Bank to address the issue.

But Weidmann warned that the ECB could only do so much to help SMEs, saying it could not be a policy goal to have equal interest rates for businesses across the bloc.

Turning to the French economic situation, Weidmann said he acknowledged that France had reduced its structural deficit by around one percentage point per year in the last three years.

“But looking to the remaining fiscal policy challenges, I think it is necessary to adhere to the existing rules on deficit reduction,” he added.

The European Commission has proposed that EU states grant France two more years to bring its deficit below a ceiling of 3 percent of output because of the country’s poor economic outlook within a recession-hit euro zone.

(Writing by Paul Carrell in Frankfurt; Editing by Jon Hemming)

With the euro zone economy stuck in recession, the ECB cut its main refinancing rate to a record low of 0.5 percent and extended its provision of unlimited funds to banks by a year at its May policy meeting,

Inflation fell to a three-year low of 1.2 percent in April, allowing some room for maneuver.

The ECB’s Joerg Asmussen told journalists in Berlin the bank’s monetary policy would remain expansive for as long as needed.

His colleague Benoit Coeure hit a similar tone when speaking at a conference in Orleans in France, saying the ECB was committed to providing the euro zone with abundant liquidity for as long as necessary.

“We are saying that because we are well aware that rigidities and difficulties of transmission in the euro zone mean that the monetary policy will have to stay accommodative for quite a long time,” Coeure said.

The ECB’s record low interest rates do not reach euro zone countries evenly because funding costs for banks in the periphery are higher than in the euro zone’s core countries. That makes it more expensive for households and companies to borrow.

ECB President Mario Draghi said last week the bank would monitor incoming data closely and would be ready to cut rates again, including the deposit rate currently at zero, which would mean it would charge banks to keep their money overnight.

Market talk that the ECB was checking with banks whether they would be prepared for such a step weighed on the euro against the dollar and German Bund future rose as much as 40 ticks to 145.71. <GVD/EUR>

Tech ECB had not immediate comment.

By charging banks for overnight deposits, the ECB would give banks with excess liquidity – mainly those in core countries – an incentive to start lending again to banks in the periphery, which are for now more reliant on the ECB for funding.

Italy’s central bank governor, Ignazio Visco, would be in favor of negative deposit rates. He was quoted earlier this week as saying it would be an effective way to help the euro zone economy.

But the step could also backfire as banks might pass the costs on to their customers.

(Reporting by Ingrid Melander in Orleans, Annika Breidthardt in Berlin, writing by Paul Carrel and Eva Kuehnen Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

At a 150-minute news conference marking his first year in office, a day after economic data showed France had slipped into recession, the Socialist leader defended his record on economic reform and budget discipline and told the French people they would have to work “a bit longer” for a full pension in future.

Rebutting criticism that France has lost its leadership role in Europe because of its dwindling economic competitiveness, Hollande said he wanted to create a fully-fledged political European Union within two years.

“It is my responsibility as the leader of a founder member of the European Union… to pull Europe out of this torpor that has gripped it, and to reduce people’s disenchantment with it,” Hollande said.

“If Europe stays in the state it is now, it could be the end of the project.”

He acknowledged he could face resistance from Germany, Europe’s dominant power, which opposes mutualising debt among member states. Berlin is also reluctant to give the euro zone its own secretariat for fear of deepening division in the EU, between the 17 members of the single currency and the 10 others.

Non-euro Britain’s government already faces growing domestic pressure to hold a referendum on leaving the bloc.

Hollande said he wanted Britain to stay in the EU but added: “I can understand that others don’t want to join (the single currency). But they cannot stop the euro zone from advancing.”

Speaking in Berlin before the French leader announced his initiative, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her relations with Hollande were good, and she was “very optimistic” France would strike a balance between growth and budgetary rigor.

Hollande said a future euro zone economic government would debate the main political and economic decisions to be taken by member states, harmonize national fiscal and welfare policies, and launch a battle against tax fraud.

He proposed bringing forward planned EU spending to combat record youth unemployment, pushing for an EU-wide transition to renewable energy sources, and envisaged “a budget capacity that would be granted to the euro zone along with the gradual possibility of raising debt”.

He also called for a 10-year public investment plan in the digital sector, the promised energy transition, public health and in big transport infrastructure projects.

TRUE SOCIALIST

Hollande’s call for a stronger social Europe came as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid rejected demands by unions for greater protection for workers, saying he would pursue cuts in education and health spending to reduce the Spain’s large structural deficit.

“Europe must be much more competitive and flexible,” Rajoy told reporters after the talks with labor groups.

Hollande, whose approval rating has fallen further than any French president in his first year, sought to reassure left-wing voters that he remained true to his Socialist colors.

He expressed full confidence in Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, played down clashes among his ministers on economic policy while urging the government to speak with a single voice, and said there might be a reshuffle in due course, but not now.

He warned that France’s pension system was unsustainable and that a reform due later this year would mean the French having to work longer in future to receive a full pension.

“As long as life expectancy gets longer, there is a principle that is obvious. The longer we live, the longer we need to work,” he said.

Hollande’s Socialists opposed a 2010 pension reform forced through by his conservative predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, that raised the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60. The Socialist leader is hoping to avoid unleashing similar strikes and unrest by having trade unions and employers negotiate a new overhaul.

The president reaffirmed a promise to reverse the rising trend in unemployment by the end of the year, despite skepticism among economists and voters that this can be achieved while the economy remains flat.

On the slump in his own popularity, Hollande was phlegmatic: “I became president at the worst of moments – but I put myself forward just the same … I knew it was the middle of a crisis.”

(Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas and Nicholas Vinocur in Paris; Fiona Ortiz in Madrid; Writing by Paul Taylor)

Barroso, who was due to meet French President Francois Hollande in Brussels later in the day, was speaking as new data showed Europe’s second largest economy slipped into a shallow recession.

The extension of the deadline to cut the deficit below 3 percent of output would be approved “if France presents a credible reform program so that France can regain its competitiveness,” Barroso told Europe 1 radio.

On Tuesday, the French parliament adopted a partial reform of the country’s labor code, slightly easing rigid job protection rules as part of Hollande’s efforts to convince European partners that he is committed to revamping the economy.

Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici dismissed any idea that Hollande would go to Brussels with fresh plans for reforms, telling reporters on Monday that Paris had already spelt out reforms in a revised 2013-2017 budget plan last month.

But as preliminary data on Wednesday showed the French economy contracting by 0.2 percent in the first quarter, Barroso said that France needed to prove its commitment to pursue further structural reforms.

“The truth is that France has lost competitiveness over the past 20 years,” he said.

By contrast, Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, managed to return to growth in the first quarter after a sharp contraction at the end of 2013.

After the figures were released, Moscovici maintained the government’s forecast of GDP growth of 0.1 percent over the whole of 2013 and said the EU needed to rebalance its policies towards stimulating growth rather than austerity.

“All of this must push us to have a European policy which goes for growth,” he told reporters after a cabinet meeting just before Hollande left for Brussels.

Speculation of a cabinet reshuffle intensified on Tuesday after Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, a former premier and finance minister, said the giant Finance Ministry needed a “boss” to better coordinate economic policy.

The remarks were aimed at Moscovici and left-wing firebrand industry minister Arnaud Montebourg, who have clashed publicly over budget cuts, industrial policy and a series of run-ins with potential foreign investors in France.

In another discordant note just as Hollande was trying to convince Brussels that he has a coherent economic strategy, Montebourg said in an interview published on Wednesday that France would fight off belt-tightening pressure.

“We are fighting to loosen the budgetary, monetary and legal belt: it’s this triple whammy that is choking growth,” he said in an interview with France’s Les Echos and Germany’s Handelsblatt.

In the same interview, which came on the day data showed Germany eked out growth in the first quarter, the ECB’s former chief economist Juergen Stark said Germany had already carried out painful reforms and France must accelerate its plans.

Barroso – whose Commission is perceived by French leftists as economically liberal – said there was a tendency in France to see new developments in the world as a threat rather than an opportunity and said that opposing globalization was like “spitting into the wind”.

Montebourg ran for Socialist presidential nomination in 2011 on a platform condemning unfettered free trade and advocating a policy of “delocalization”.

France entered a shallow recession in the first three months of the year as the economy contracted by 0.2 percent because of weak exports, investment and household spending.

The data – which marks France’s first recession in four years – is further bad news for the Socialist government after the number of jobless people hit an all-time high in March.

(Reporting By Nicholas Vinocur and Ingrid Melander; editing by Mark John and Paul Taylor)

Germany grew by just 0.1 percent on the quarter, weaker than
expected as a harsh winter prevented a stronger rebound.

“The German economy is only slowly picking up steam,” the
Statistics Office said in a statement. “The extreme winter
weather played a role in this weak growth.”

France entered a shallow recession after contracting by 0.2
percent in the first three months of the year, as it did in the
last quarter of 2012, the INSEE statistics agency said.

The German statistics office revised down its figure for the
end of 2012 to show a contraction of 0.7 percent, from 0.6
percent.

The difference between Europe’s two largest economies looks
narrow over the first three months of the year but European
diplomats and officials fear France will continue to lag far
behind, threatening the cohesion of the twin policy motor that
has traditionally driven the European project.

“Looking ahead, prospects for the German economy are further
clearing up,” ING economist Carsten Brzeski said. “Industry is
gaining pace as order books have started to fill again and
companies are cautiously stepping up their investment plans.
Moreover, domestic demand with the solid labour market and wage
increases have become a reliable growth driver.”

The figure for the whole euro zone, due at 0900 GMT, is
forecast to show the currency bloc’s economy subsided by 0.1
percent in the first quarter, leaving it in recession, although
a strong industrial production reading on Tuesday could produce
a better result.

A Reuters poll of 65 economists showed growth should return
in the second half of this year and the euro zone may even
scrape up some in the second quarter, but there will no strong
recovery until at least 2015.

LONG RUNWAY

Even Germany will find it difficult to reach take-off speed
alone.

Thomas Gitzel at VP Bank expected a stronger performance in
the second quarter as construction activity, hit by the extreme
winter, bounces back.

But he added: “The current global economic backdrop makes a
sustained recovery more unlikely. Difficulties in France and
disappointing growth figures from China are strewing stones in
the path of the Germany economy. Hopes of significantly higher
growth could be premature.”

The figures will add fuel to a burgeoning debate about how
to balance the need to cut debt with measures to foster growth.

Italian and French leaders have been vocal in calling for an
end to austerity and European Commission President Jose Manuel
Barroso has said it has reached the limits of public acceptance.

France, Spain and others have been granted longer to meet
their deficit targets because of the worsening economic outlook

Germany, however, sees austerity as necessary to bring down
bloated debts after a decade of credit-fuelled spending across
much of Europe, even if many economists say it has deepened the
euro zone’s recession.

Data out last month showed Spain’s economy shrank for a
seventh consecutive quarter in the first three months of the
year, falling by 0.5 percent.

The government has acknowledged that 2013 will be worse than
it had previously expected with the economy expecting to
contract by 1.3 percent.

A separate rift also emerged at a European Union finance ministers meeting over whether or when big depositors should suffer losses, as they did in Cyprus’s bailout.

ECB board member Joerg Asmussen called for a single scheme across the euro zone to close troubled banks. Such a unified mechanism should be in place by the time the ECB starts overseeing banks next year, he said ahead of the meeting.

Those views where in conflict with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has said the next step should be the coordination of national schemes to shut down problem banks, rather than a system with shared euro zone risk.

“We want a single European resolution regime, together with a single resolution agency and a single resolution fund that is financed by a levy from the banking industry,” Asmussen said, underlining what EU leaders agreed to establish last June.

“This should come into place in parallel with the single supervisory mechanism, hopefully by the summer of next year.”

The frank remarks reflect a growing sense of alarm in Frankfurt over government foot-dragging in completing the two-legged banking union – with a system of ECB-led bank supervision, on one hand, closely followed by a single agency to close troubled banks and a fund to cover the costs.

A third plank, which would involve a single system for guaranteeing deposits, already looks unlikely to be created and has largely been dropped.

Asmussen’s remarks set him sharply at odds with fellow German Schaeuble, who he previously worked for. Schaeuble has said a single agency to restructure or close failed banks can only be established if the EU’s treaty is changed, a lengthy and complex process.

Schaeuble’s chief argument is that a firmer legal basis is needed when dividing up the costs of bank failures. But some EU diplomats see that as a tactic to stall discussions until after German elections, set for September, and prevent the issue being used to rally voters against Chancellor Angela Merkel.

After more than three years of tackling a debt crisis that has forced five euro zone countries to seek bailouts for their economies or banks, dividing up the bill from bank collapses remains one of the most contentious issues facing Europe.

FRESH DIVIDE

On Tuesday, finance ministers discussed an EU proposal for a ‘bail in’, which would establish an order for how losses are distributed when banks are closed, with losses first handed to a bank’s shareholders, then junior bondholders, then senior bondholders and, ultimately, large depositors.

Asmussen and Michel Barnier, the European commissioner in charge of financial regulation, argued in favor of making big depositors – those with more than 100,000 euros in accounts – the last in line for losses if a bank goes to the wall.

“They would only be called on … after other creditors,” Barnier told ministers in a part of the meeting that was broadcast to journalists.

Barnier and Asmussen argued that such a provision would not make it more expensive for banks, which rely on deposits to refinance their activities, to raise funding.

“First shareholders have to be burned, then all junior bank bondholders, then unsecured senior bank bondholders and uninsured depositors at the very end,” Asmussen said.

“This means we want to establish a clear depositor preference and that also includes, in any case, that deposits below 100,000 euros will be protected.”

But opinion was divided among ministers in the room on this point, as well as over how much flexibility countries should have in exempting their banks’ savers from losses.

France’s Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said he was against a blanket preferential treatment for unsecured depositors but was in favor of a “presumption of exclusion from the bail-in” which could be lifted.

Others took a different tack, with Spain saying deposits should be protected and Luxembourg taking a similar line.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott, Annika Breidthardt, Martin Santa; writing by Jan Strupczewski and John O’Donnell; Editing by Rex Merrifield/Jeremy Gaunt)

“It is indispensable that we stick to the agreed calendar on
banking union and that we take steps to make sure families and
small companies receive credit,” Spanish Prime Minister Mariano
Rajoy told reporters.

“Banking union is the credibility test of the European
Union,” he said, after meeting Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro
Passos Coelho, who backed his calls for progress on Europe’s
most ambitious reform of the financial crisis.

The call came as finance ministers from the euro zone met in
Brussels, ahead of which German Finance Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble reiterated the need for a change to EU treaties to
underpin the new system of bank resolution.

“When a bank is wound up, money and jobs are usually lost.
Those affected will seek redress. If there is an activity that
needs a solid legal base, it is resolution,” he wrote in an
article in the Financial Times on Monday.

To avoid treaty change and have a banking union “of sorts”
Schaeuble proposed to stick for now to the intermediate stage of
a coordinated network of national resolution authorities, rather
than a new EU resolution authority.

“This would be a timber-framed, not a steel-framed, banking
union,” Schaeuble wrote.

Most euro zone countries and institutions believe a full
banking union, which would help deal with banking crises, is
needed urgently to restore investor confidence.

Under the plan, the biggest banks will be supervised by the
European Central Bank from the middle of next year. There is
also to be a single bank resolution mechanism that would wind
down insolvent banks. Plans for a common deposit guarantee
scheme are unlikely to happen any time soon.

But while the ECB bank supervision looks set to take effect
as planned, the single authority that would order and finance
the closure of a bank is unlikely to materialise soon, because
Germany believes it needs a change to the EU treaty.

Some were sympathetic to this message. “Many of the building
blocks for the banking union can be put in place. The issue of
the treaty change can be addressed later on,” Jeroen
Dijsselbloem, the Eurogroup chairman, told reporters before the
ministerial meeting.

“I think the Germans are putting forward understandable
questions, which will have to be dealt with. But I don’t see why
that should stop us making progress on banking union,” he said.

But the issue is divisive because a change to the European
Union treaty could take years and entails risks – the revised
law could be rejected in one of the 27 national EU parliaments
during ratification.

PUSH BACK

Some policy-makers believe Germany is demanding treaty
change to push the discussion on bank resolution back until
after its parliamentary elections in September, in which
Chancellor Angela Merkel will have to deal with rising popular
discontent with bailing out euro zone banks and governments.

“You do not need treaty change for banking resolution, it
can be done under the existing rules,” one EU diplomat said.
“Germany is erecting barriers to slow down the process, but that
is a political decision, not a technical one.”

France too called for rapid progress. “We need to go fast,
as fast as possible, and have a global banking union,” French
Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told reporters before the euro
zone finance ministers meeting.

“Mr. Schaeuble says we need to go as far as possible with
the existing treaty, and if there are problems in order to
change the treaties, we’ll see. I do agree with that with maybe
a little nuance that I believe that we can go very very far with
the existing treaty and maybe, a second thing, I am convinced
that we need an integrated authority,” Moscovici said.

Consumer spending accounts for more than half of France’s
output and is the motor of the economy. It fell last year for
the first time in 19 years.

Record unemployment is still pushing households to keep
their wallets closed. An unexpected rebound in March, largely
due to heating staying on through cold weather, was not enough
to stop a 0.4 percent January to March quarterly decline.

The data prompted Jacques Creyssel, head of the FCD business
federation, to warn of a fresh contraction in purchasing power
this year. He called the March rebound of 1.3 percent
“technical.”

Philippe Waechter, chief economist at Natixis Asset
Management, agreed. “Household consumption will remain lifeless
this year and I wouldn’t expect much change next year,” he said.

An opinion poll showed last week that 77 percent of people
reckon their purchasing power will contract this year after
shrinking in 2012 for the first time in nearly 30 years. Some 58
percent of respondents plan to cut spending in the coming
months, the Mediaprism survey showed.

Even sectors which have long been more resilient are also
feeling the pinch, with 40 percent of respondents saying in the
survey that they will spend less on food.

“We are in a particularly difficult time for consumption,
including for food,” Creyssel said. His federation represents
France’s major retailers including Carrefour and
Casino.

“NOT HAPPY DAYS”

The hushed alleys of a large mass-market furniture shop on
the edge of Paris are indicative of the dearth of spending by
households who are cutting back on all but the essentials.

“This place should be swarming with people on a Saturday,
and there’s no one,” said vendor Hamid Ouafai, looking around,
on a recent weekend, at the piles of boxes, lamps and chairs
standing untouched around him in the Fly furniture shop.

A quick look at his computer just before 2 pm that day told
Ouafai that his section of the shop has grossed about 1,500
euros so far, far from the target, already revised down, of
7,000 euros for the day.

“People don’t have money to spend anymore … These are not
happy days,” he said shaking his head.

The household savings rate will be key to how consumption
fares this year after the drop in consumer spending last year
was mitigated by people digging into their savings.

“Will it be the same in 2013? Looking at 2012 we would hope
so but there is a risk. If households get more worried about
unemployment or worry that more tax increases could come they
could increase rainy day savings,” said Cedric Audenis, head of
economic forecasting at INSEE.

“We would rather expect a growth rebound to come from
abroad, because our partners like Germany and the United States
have better fundamentals and, at home, we don’t expect a rebound
either from consumption or business investment,” he said.

The government forecasts that household consumption will
barely grow – by 0.2 percent overall – this year and contribute
to keeping the economy just out of recession.

But many economists view the forecast as too optimistic and
instead predict a slight contraction.

In contrast, in EU powerhouse Germany, criticised in France
for insisting on euro zone-wide austerity, consumer morale rose
to its highest since October 2007, data showed.

Consumption, which accounts for over half of France’s
output, is the motor of the French economy but high
unemployment is making households cautious about spending.

The March 1.3 percent increase beat analyst expectations of
an 0.1 percent rise. Spending was down 0.4 percent in the first
quarter after the first annual contraction in nearly two decades
in 2012, INSEE statistics service data showed on Tuesday.

The cold weather was behind most of March’s increase.
Households spent 2.8 percent more on energy than in February and
11.2 percent more than a year ago. They also spent more on food
but less on clothes and shoes.

The government forecasts that household consumption will
barely grow by 0.2 percent overall this year and contribute to
keeping the economy just out of recession.

But many economists view the forecast as too optimistic and
instead predict a slight contraction at a time when INSEE data
shows consumers have the most pessimistic view on record on how
their standard of living will evolve

Opinion polls have shown recently that people in the euro
zone’s second-largest economy expect their purchasing power to
contract further this year after shrinking in 2012 for the first
time in nearly thirty years.

A Mediaprism survey showed earlier this month that 77
percent of respondents reckon purchasing power will contract.
Some 58 percent plan to cut spending in the coming months.

Around two thirds will cut down on leisure activities and
nearly as many on clothing and 40 percent will spend less on
food, the survey showed.

In contrast, in EU powerhouse Germany, criticised in France
for insisting on austerity, consumer morale rose to its highest
since October 2007, data showed on Tuesday.

Consumer confidence in the euro zone as a whole started to
rebound at the end of last year and improved again in April,
according to a monthly survey from the European Commission.

The new 3.225 million record, an 11.5 percent annual increase, is a symbolic blow to Socialist President Francois Hollande, whose approval ratings have sunk to the lowest of any modern French leader in recent months as jobless claims soared.

Battling to make good on his promise to reverse the rise in unemployment by the end of this year, Hollande has launched subsidized youth-job schemes and pushed through a reform to make hiring and firing slightly easier.

Yet the number of registered job seekers in mainland France rose by 1.2 percent in March, marking a 23rd straight monthly rise and reaching the worst level since records began in January 1996, the labor ministry said.

With a wave of industrial layoffs taking effect, the March jobless figure of 3,224,600 not only soared further above the 3 million level hit last August but beat the previous all-time record of 3,195,500 set in January 1997.

Hollande on Thursday reaffirmed his goal to reverse the rising trend, calling on his government to combine with industry and other players to use all means possible to create jobs.

“Everything the government does, in every ministry, must be to continue to strengthen the battle for jobs,” he told a news conference during a state visit to China. “I want all the French people to unite behind this one national priority.”

In a satirical dig at Hollande, steelworkers in eastern France erected a marble tombstone to his election promises on Wednesday as ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) permanently shut two blast furnaces many had hoped he could save.

In a bitter irony, the only place to have announced any major hiring plan recently is the national employment agency Pole Emploi, which said last month it would hire 2,000 extra staff by September.

Auto-makers, once major job-providers, have announced thousands of staff cuts, with PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) scrapping more than 10,000 domestic jobs and rival Renault (RENA.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) aiming to cut 7,500 posts in France by 2016.

The labor ministry data are the most frequently reported jobs indicator in the country, although they are not prepared according to International Labor Organisation standards nor expressed as a percentage of job seekers in the work force.

The March data also showed that the average time that jobseekers spend on the jobless roster hit a new multi-year high of 485 days, up from a previous record of 482 in February, a level that was also reached in April 2000.

(Graphic and additional reporting by by Leigh Thomas)