France will slash business tax by eight billion euros (US$10 billion) next year in a bid to stop firms going bust during the economic crisis, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Feb. 5.
"We will get rid of local taxes on business in 2010, I want us to keep factories in France," he said in an interview he gave to defend his handling of the crisis.
The interview came a week after more than a million strikers took to the streets in protest at his response to the downturn.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
