Will Sarkozy’s Economic Plans Help Boost French ETF?

September 04, 2007 at 1:07 pm by Tom Lydon

The iShares MSCI France Index (EWQ) exchange traded fund (ETF) continues to stabilize and rise above its long-term trend line after the recent financial-market turbulence. Currently, EWQ is up 7.0% year-to-date.

In response to the global credit crunch that affected most countries’ economies and their ETFs, President Nicolas Sarkozy has instructed his finance minister, Christine Lagarde, to draft a plan that would require financial institutions to disclose much more information about the financial products they sell, according to David Crane for The Toronto Star. In addition, Sarkozy has goals to reform and boost the French economy and tackle unemployment. If he can accomplish the tasks, it is expected to increase public morale that would lead to a rise in consumer consumption, similar to what the U.S. experienced under Ronald Reagan. However, it is unclear how the economic reforms will be financed, according to Francesca Barbieri for Equilibri.

Part of EWQ’s increase also could be related to predictions that Europe’s economy might expand more quickly than originally forecast, according to Ben Sills for Bloomberg.

Ewq_etf_chart