France to create investment bank to bolster competitiveness

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced on Wednesday that the due Public Investment Bank will enjoy 40 billion euros (about 52.4 billion U.S. dollars) of financing capacity aimed at injecting fresh breathe into the sluggish local companies. Ater a weekly cabinet meeting, Ayrault said the bank "will have 20 billion euros of equity financing with a capacity of 30 billion euros in loans and guarantees to which must be added the capacity to intervene in equity to 10 billion euros." The planned bank aimed at financing small and medium seized companies to help them bolster their competitiveness enough to well positioning their products and services in global markets, he added. "(The bank creation) is a very important step for industry recovery, economy recovery and competitiveness. It's a strong move decided today by the government," the French prime minister said. (1 euro = 1.31 U.S. dollar)