France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he has not signed off on a 5 billion euro state-guaranteed loan to help Renault cope with the fallout from the coronavirus, and that discussions continued.related media assets available. Click to see the gallery.PARIS: France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he has not signed off on a 5 billion euro state-guaranteed loan to help Renault cope with the fallout from the coronavirus, and that discussions continued.
Sources told Reuters on Monday that Renault had reached an agreement on the loan with banks and that it should be submitted to the board of directors soon, before being formally approved by the finance ministry. The government forecasts the euro zone's second-biggest economy will shrink at least 8per cent this year. Its budget deficit is set to hit a post-war record of 9per cent of economic output this year.The European Union has granted member countries all the fiscal leeway they need to deal with the economic impact of the coronavirus, enabling governments to open the spending taps and wave aside EU budget rules that limit government borrowing.