People & Profit

Inflation in France is set to surpass 4 percent in March, according to the latest estimates from the national statistics institute Insee. The pace of price rises has already hit the highest level since 2008. The rising cost of living has become a central issue in the French presidential election campaign, with promises from candidates to cut taxes and raise wages to tackle it.

Ukraine's former finance minister has told FRANCE 24 that any company doing business with Russia is indirectly financing the war in Ukraine. Natalie Jaresko was in office from 2014 to 2016, when Russia annexed Crimea and conflict was raging in the eastern Donbas region. She described the current situation facing Ukraine as an "economic strangulation of the country" and called on global firms to stop any operations in Russia.

Russia is facing a raft of financial sanctions after it invaded Ukraine. But it's spent years building up its economy to protect against such measures. We take a closer look at Vladimir Putin's fortress economy with Alistair Milne, Professor of Financial Economics at Loughborough University.

The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, has said the crisis in Ukraine could be a "historic turning point" in how European countries source their energy. Speaking to FRANCE 24 on Wednesday, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Birol noted that supplies of Russian gas to Europe had already fallen last year before the recent escalation of tensions. He said it could be an impetus for EU policymakers to turn to alternative sources, as the cost of gas and electricity have soared.

An estimated 10 million jobs were lost in the creative industries in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report from the United Nations' cultural agency UNESCO. The organisation estimates that shutdowns and other restrictions incurred a loss of $750 billion to the global economy. The UN body is calling for better social protection for workers in the arts, many of whom lost their income for long periods during the pandemic. We discuss the report's findings with UNESCO's Berta de Sancristóbal.

A French startup is trying to reinvent online dating for 18 to 25-year-olds. Created in 2019, the app known as Feels looks more like a Snapchat-style story or a TikTok feed than the swipeable profiles found in other dating apps. Its CEO Daniel Cheaib joins us from Miami to tell us exactly how the app works and how the company is now hoping to seduce users in the US.

For more than 30 years, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been investing in countries in Central and Eastern Europe. It's since expanded into the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa and has plans to move into Sub-Saharan Africa too. The EBRD's President Odile Renaud-Basso discussed some of the challenges facing the development lender, including climate finance, transitioning away from fossil fuels and the Bank's pro-democracy mandate.

India's economy is expected to grow by 8.7 percent this year, according to the latest forecast from the International Monetary Fund, but participation in the labour force has fallen and unemployment has risen to a four-month high. How can India jump-start its labour market along with the economy? Stephen Carroll asks Rajat Kathuria, Professor of Economics and Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shiv Nadar University.

The robotics startup Exotec has become France's 25th unicorn company, valued at $2 billion after its latest fundraising round. The firm makes robots for e-commerce depots, and counts big names like Carrefour, Uniqlo and Decathlon among its customers. Exotec's CEO Romain Moulin told FRANCE 24 the inspiration for the company actually came from online retail giant Amazon.

The World Bank is warning of a "steep slowdown" in economic growth in 2022, as the Omicron variant and inflation weigh on the recovery from Covid-19. In its latest economic forecast, the Bank expects slower global expansion this year and next, as well as a divergence between developed and developing countries. Franziska Ohnsorge, one of the report's authors, told FRANCE 24 "it's almost as if the two groups are on different flight paths", as poorer countries lag behind richer ones.