Eight economists polled by Reuters had expected on average a deficit of 4.0 billion euros, with estimates ranging from -3.0 to -4500000000.

The remainder of June was revised to 3.718 billion from the $ 3.796 billion announced in the first estimate, one month ago.

In the first seven months of the year, the cumulative deficit CVS / CJO trade of France stood at 28.454 billion against 24.397 billion for the corresponding period of 2009.

Exports FOB data CVS / CJO emerged to 33.678 billion euros against 33.037 billion in June

The imports amounted to 37.858 billion 36.755 billion against the previous month.

In July, France has sold its 30 Airbus reported 2.002 million euros against 26 aircraft to 1,719,000 euros in June

Germany has emerged on the same month of July in a trade surplus of 12.7 billion euros after 12.4 billion the previous month, according to data released earlier in the morning by the Federal Office of Statistics.

In contrast, German exports have registered an unexpected fall in July, the first in three months, falling 1.5% in seasonally adjusted data from the previous month.

"I decided, for personal reasons, to end my functions as president of the National Confederation of Credit Mutuel, and the Federation of Credit Mutuel Centre Est Europe," he wrote in a statement released to the press by Credit Mutuel.

The banking group, in its statement, said that Michael Lucas, the current CEO of the Credit Mutuel will replace Stephen Pflimlin as President from October 14.

Previously, a source close to the group's management confirmed to Reuters that information revealed by the newspaper Les Echos.

"Yes, there is a press release that starts tonight at 18 hours, but I think I'll try to move forward," said the source had told Reuters.

The Defence Minister Herve Morin, who received his British counterpart Liam Fox to Paris for a bilateral meeting devoted to the weapons programs of both countries, also stressed that the French and British companies were to cooperate more and that would make Paris and London joint proposals for NATO reform.

"We hope that our cooperation is in the background the ability (for France and Great Britain, ed) to make budgetary savings," he said during a brief press briefing.

France and Britain, both facing pressures on their finances, have decided to start saving measures, particularly in the defense sector.

"It is logical to examine the issues where we can share the assets rather than acting separately," explained Liam Fox."It's a purely pragmatic."

Herve Morin said, however, that France does not plan to share aircraft carrier with Britain at this time.

A source close to the Defense Ministry told Reuters that the technical characteristics of French and British aircraft made a pooling difficult but that nothing prevented the two armed boats to share logistics.

"The sharing of an aircraft carrier would not be realistic," confirmed Liam Fox.

Herve Morin assured that Paris and London had been exploring a range of issues of cooperation and mentioned as an example the tanker and the future A400M military transport aircraft, a program led by Airbus Military, a subsidiary of European aerospace and EADS Defence.

"We look very real, capacity by size, by industrial subject matter industry, we can do, either in cooperation, or we can decide who would lead us toward interdependence," he said.

"On the tanker (tankers), the maintenance in operational condition (OLS) of the A400M, the joint naval facilities, we can move towards greater pooling."

PROPOSALS

The contract for the A400M program delay of almost four years, must be revised so that some countries like Germany and Great Britain, dissatisfied with the delivery and anxious to reduce their expenses, considering scaling back their orders .

"On the A400M, it actually makes sense, then we have budgetary constraints, to achieve more together than separately and see where we can achieve economies of scale and use of shared assets," Liam Fox said.

Both ministers have not detailed how this sharing could take place.France has ordered 50 A400M while Great Britain could reduce its order for 25 aircraft to 22.

EADS has signed an agreement in March with the seven member countries of NATO to the origin of the A400M, which allows them to cancel up to 10 aircraft from the total 180 aircraft ordered.

Herve Morin also argues that he had discussed a reform of NATO with Liam Fox.

"France and Great Britain are the desire for a reform of the alliance with a reduction of bureaucracy, increased financial control, reduced staffs and physical footprints" he said before adding that France and Great Britain would submit proposals for savings in the next NATO summit in Lisbon in November.

The Minister also invited the French and British companies to enter into partnerships and alliances.

"We need to redefine a number of edges that we may not have the same research centers on both sides of the Channel '," he pleaded.

Over a year, retail sales rose 0.8%.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a monthly increase of 0.5% and an increase of 1.4% over one year.

No hostile bid will be made, the newspaper said, while the offensive Saffron comes a month after an initial rejection of the leaders of the Zodiac.

"Considering that we have more than one in two chance, we'll go, if it has less than one in two chance, wait. This folder will always feel in six months a year," told the newspaper an internal source of saffron.

A spokesman declined to comment Safran information immediately.A spokesman declined to comment Zodiac.

Around 11:25, the action was progressing Zodiac 13.01% to 49 euros on the Paris Stock Exchange after reaching a high of 53.4 euros earlier in the morning.At the same time, Saffron retreated 1.66% to 19.01 euros.

Saffron is able to offer a premium of 30-40% compared to the current course, says the Tribune, the equivalent of the highest historic title in 2007, to 58 euros.

Safran is ready to bring the family shareholders of Zodiac in its capital, the newspaper said, which would dilute the share of the state, now a shareholder group to 30%.

Citing "multiple sources," the newspaper wrote that the family Domange shareholder Zodiac up 9.28%, is not ready to sell, unlike the Peugeot family (5% of capital) who would be willing to cede Units.

Safran will do this for an offer to allow shareholders to retain the family tax benefit they have obtained by signing a pact Dutreil "six years ago and through which they receive a tax exemption on capital of 75%.

In prior postings to the families, Safran said his project is an acquisition of Zodiac, but that it could be achieved by exchange of securities and merger in order to preserve the fiscal pact, The Tribune wrote.

Tokyo seeks the method that will curb the rising yen, which this week hit a high of 15 years against the dollar and a high of nine against the euro, threatening to bring down a recovery that based on exports.

But the strong yen is likely to complicate efforts by the Japanese government to fight deflation.

Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said Friday that reporters would act when necessary on the issue of the strong yen and he would meet the Governor of the Bank of Japan Masaaki Shirakawa on his return from a trip to the abroad.

Naoto Kan also said that excessive currency fluctuations could threaten financial stability and hoped that the BoJ would take the appropriate measures in terms of monetary policy.

Decisions will be made August 31 on these issues.

The Interior Ministry announced Friday that consumer prices, which include fuel costs but not those of fresh products, fell 1.1% yoy in July according to the median forecast of the market. In June, they were down 1%.

"TWO OR THREE YEARS OF DEFLATION"

"Given the appreciation of the yen, exports will plunge and temporarily slow the economic recovery in Japan.Japan will remain in deflation for the next two or three years, "said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institue.

Investors are betting on an intervention by the Bank of Japan to ease monetary policy in the country.

"The BoJ could expand its refinancing tools next month, but the effect on interest rates in the short term will be limited.She needs to take bolder decisions to fight deflation and the rising yen, as increasing outright purchases of government bonds, although it is very unlikely to happen, "said Takeshi Minami.

Two other indicators released Friday offers a contrasting vision of the Japanese recovery.

The unemployment rate adjusted for seasonal variations fell 5.2% in July against 5.3% in June while the median forecast was 5.3%, according to figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Household spending has in turn increased by 1.1% in July over a year in real terms, less than the market forecast of an increase of 1.3%.

For a chart comparing the evolution of consumer prices in Japan, the United States and the euro area, click on link.reuters.com/pum57n

The hostile bid of nearly $ 40 billion launched the world's leading fertilizer Potash or the stock market battle for control of the data storage company 3PAR have been seen by some analysts as a sign announcing a possible new cycle.

"Such operations raise a little mercato" judge a banker, a comparison of sports in the same vein as the one launched during the World Cup soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo by: "The goals is like ketchup: when they arrive, they all come together. "

Announcements and takeover rumors are linked together with a consistent and disturbing intended target size in almost all sectors: automobiles Alfa Romeo, the Australian brewer Foster's with the bank with Nedbank of South Africa, insurance with the UK's Aviva or energy with Polish ENEA.

Figures gathered by Thomson Reuters for the French market is also impressive, even excluding the approximately $ 20 billion Sanofi-Aventis would be willing to spend on the U.S. Genzyme.

THE CONTEXT IS BEST

Transactions involving at least one French company are, at August 25, two times larger in value than in 2009 although it remains far from achieving the speculative frenzy in 2006.

On August 25, 2006, volumes amounted to 239 billion dollars, against 105 billion reached Wednesday.

"Generally, we can say that the context is better than the last two years and the probability of operations is improving, although significant uncertainties remain," Thierry J. Silver, Global Head of 'M & A activity at Societe Generale.

"There is no reason to believe that the major cross-border operations will slow.They are now once again well received by shareholders when the companies have demonstrated their ability to cope with the crisis, "said the banker.

The poor market performance since the beginning of the year is still a risk factor and observers recall that many transactions or IPOs had to be canceled after the crash loosened markets in the first quarter .

MOTION FRAGILE

"We are seeing a recovery in 2010, but this movement will remain fragile until the current uncertainty about valuations persist," the judge for his part in a research note Rivalland Jean-Claude, a lawyer with Allen & Overy in Paris.

The degradation of the sovereign rating of Ireland by Standard & Poor's has also recalled Tuesday that the euro zone was not yet out of the rut and the specter of a relapse of the U.S. economy is also a source of concern.

"The problems on the sovereign credit may resurface, CFOs remain cautious because they do not want to take full credit crunch, they must restructure their debts after a major operation," noted for its share Philip Caraman, a banker from UBS to Paris.

"As long as there is no more visible on sovereign risk, the volumes remain as low as three or four years," Judge said.

For Monique Cohen, managing partner of private equity firm Apax, one of the keys to continued activity is the continued financing of transactions by banks, a vital issue for the private equity industry.

"We can not consider access to the debt as an asset of the moment," she said, noting however that "no new restrictions on debt, many LBO (leveraged transactions) should be provided be in September.

To some bankers, corporate strategic imperatives also explain that they go ahead even if the timing is not ideal.

Some major transactions announced or expected to emerge this logic rather than a genuine recovery in overall mergers and acquisitions, they believe.

"In pharma we got to a point where the economy is good or bad, the problems must be addressed," said a banker based in London.

Large groups such as Sanofi-Aventis and not have enough new molecules for activity in the coming years and must grow through acquisitions.

Similarly, some companies must gain control of new technologies or new markets and therefore have to attack even when conditions are not ideal.

"It's a matter of life or death," Judge the same banker.

Around 9:10, the CAC 40 lost 0.95% to 3519.44 points.

Accor (+1.5%) is the only value of the CAC 40 in the green after the group announced the sale of walls 48 of its hotels in Europe, allowing it to exceed its debt reduction targets for 2010.

Lafarge (-3.9%) shows the largest decreases of ACC. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch lowered its recommendation from neutral to underperform.

London fell by 0.7% and Frankfurt 0.63%.The European indices, EuroStoxx 50 and 300 Eurofirst yield more than 0.9%.

The dollar is trading around 1.2642 per euro against 1.2635 late Monday.

A barrel of U.S. light crude lost 88 cents to 72.22 dollars.

The world's largest producer of potash added in a statement expected to bring proposals have higher than 39 billion dollars (30.7 billion euros) made by BHP or other strategic options.

Discussions were held with several parties in order to generate higher offers, he said.

According to Bloomberg, Potash has been contacted by the Chinese and Brazilian Vale Sinochem.

The action Potash gained 1% in pre-market transactions on the New York Stock Exchange, to $ 151.

The action BHP gained about 2% in London, to 1858.5 pence.

The riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas on the workers in the industrial area of Ashulia, north of the capital Dhaka.In this sector, workers, requiring a higher minimum wage of 25-70 dollars, have erected barricades of old tires, set fire to trucks for delivery and launched missiles at the police for fourth consecutive day.

Some 800,000 workers spend many factories closed down 700, but "tens of thousands" more are on the streets, forcing shops to close, "said deputy chief of police in Dhaka Monowar Hosain.

Plants that have been forced to close their doors provide Western chains such as Wal-Mart, H & M, Tesco, Carrefour and Metro, as well as major brands like Tommy Hilfiger, GAP and Levi Strauss. The workers demanded wage of at least 5,000 taka (70 dollars) per month.The current minimum wage set in 2006 is only $ 25.

Read also: Foxconn increases wages by 70% in China

Under the patronage of manufacturers and exporters of textiles (BGMEA), the violent protests, which began Saturday, has created a climate of "panic and anarchy, forcing factories to close until further notice. "More than 50 factories were ransacked by protesters who prevented and deliver orders on time, resulting in losses totaling millions of dollars," said Vice-President of the BGMEA, M. Mohiuddin Shafiul Islam.

Labour Minister Mosharraf Hossain promised after an emergency meeting with the management of textile wage increases, but has threatened "strong action" demonstrators.Textiles account for 80% of annual exports of Bangladesh and its factories employing 40% of the workforce of the industrial countries, most of them women.