All the day´s economic and financial news, including reaction to last night´s Greek bailout agreement, new UK public finances, and Bank of England governor Mark Carney at parliamentLatest: French bonds under more pressureEurozone growth at near six-year highFrance´s private sector growth hits 69-month highThe agenda: UK public finance at 9.30am 9.22am GMT French government bonds are coming under renewed selling presure, as fears that far right politician Marine Le Pen could become the country´s next president.Despite today´s strong economic data, traders are piling out of French debt and into German bonds instead - fearing a political earthquake when the French head to the polls in late April and early May.Oops: #France 10y risk spread over #Germany jumps to almost 80bps, highest since 2012 as Le Pen worries rise. pic.twitter.com/O2DREPqBsyI`m quoted in City AM`s latest coverage of the French elections: https://t.co/1s5OGoNLfs via @CityAM 9.11am GMT The upshot of today´s PMI reports is that the eurozone economy is picking up speed this month.Markit says:Job creation was the best seen for nine and a half years, order book growth picked up and business optimism moved higher, all boding well for the recovery to maintain strong momentum in coming months. Inflationary pressures meanwhile continued to intensify. Euro zone PMI clearly didn`t get the eurocrisis is back due to Greece/Le Pen memo. Composite at 56 (54.4 in Jan), 70-month high pic.twitter.com/xcNGjZydJg 9.08am GMT Boom! Company growth across the euro area has hit its fastest rate in almost six years, thanks to the pick-up in France (details) and Germany (details)Euro area composite PMI at a 6 year high, job creation at a 9 1/2 years high.Euro zone flash composite PMI for February is 56.0, best since April 2011. pic.twitter.com/7lI1hvRbXQ 8.59am GMT Here´s Kit Juckes of French bank Société Générale on today´s eurozone growth figures:France´s composite flash PMI came in at 56.2 this month - and Germany´s came ...
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