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Temperatures of 30C in south-west France before Sunday storms
Several areas to face storms in a precursor to heavy rain next week
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Warning for all ages as whooping cough on rise in France
The condition starts with cold-like symptoms before the coughing becomes more severe. It can be dangerous - even fatal - for infants and vulnerable people
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Trend for entering empty properties in France and taking photos
It is not illegal so long as the owner does not voice opposition and the person entering does not break anything to get in
Major boost for business set-up
Creation of new businesses soared 15.6% over the last 12 months, thought to be linked to new government measures.
Business set-up increased in all sectors, especially among micro-entreprises, which are up 24.8%, but also among traditional sole trader businesses (19.3%) and to a lesser extent, companies (2.4%).
The year-on-year rise was especially marked over the last quarter at 21.2%.
The sectors with the largest amounts of business creation were transport and storage, followed by property-related businesses. There were a particularly high number of set-ups for home-delivery, including people working for schemes like Deliveroo, UberEats and Foodora.
The boost in the micro-entreprise sector has been hailed as a welcome development – it took off strongly after the auto-entrepreneur was launched 10 years ago but had more recently been running out of steam. President of the Union des Auto-entrepreneurs, François Hurel, has called it “spectacular and a very good sign for the economy”. Recent trends include more women setting up businesses, and higher average turnovers.
The rise has been linked to measures such as a first year of exoneration from social charges (with a limit of €30,000 turnover) and the doubling of the ceilings for the simple micro-entreprise set-up.
Also in the pipeline is the Pacte Law, to be debated by MPs in the autumn.
It includes a ‘one-stop shop’ way to make the declarations required in creating a company (société), removing the obligation for micro-entrepreneurs in artisan sectors to do a set-up course, and removing for firms with small turnovers, the requirement to have a separate bank account.