France Prepares $30 Billion Economic Stimulus Plan
法国出台三百亿美元经济刺激计划

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has unveiled a stimulus plan worth more than $30 billion to fight the economic and financial downturn.

法国总统萨科齐推出了一个总值300亿美元的刺激计划来对付经济和金融市场的下滑。

The French plan is the latest of a series of proposals by various European governments to earmark massive amounts of money to help reinvigorate their moribund economies. In a speech in northern France, President Sarkozy said the global economic crisis would sharply change people's behavior, values and ideas - and that France needed to confront it head on.

法国出台的经济刺激计划是欧洲各国政府通过拨出巨款来帮助各自萎靡不振的经济重新充满活力的一系列建议中的最新一个。萨科齐总统在法国北部发表演讲时表示，全球性的经济危机将会使人们的行为、价值观和想法发生巨大的改变，而法国需要直接对这种情况作出应对。

Mr. Sarkozy said the response by his conservative government will be investment. He said investment was the best way to sustain activities and to save jobs for today - and tomorrow. For a long time, he said, France had postponed this kind of investment to make the French economy more competitive. He said not doing so now would be a major error.

萨科齐说，他的保守政府将通过投资来对此作出反应。他表示，投资是维持经济活动以及保留目前以及今后的就业机会的最佳途径。他说，在很长一段时间里，法国推迟了采取这种能够使法国经济更具竞争力的投资。他表示，不进行这样的投资将是一个很大的错误。

The French president spoke in Douai, which is home to a major Renault car factory. As elsewhere in Europe and the United States, the French car industry has been hard hit by the crisis, and part of Mr. Sarkozy's stimulus plan aims to shore up the automobile sector.

萨科齐总统是在雷诺汽车公司一个主要汽车厂的所在地杜埃市发表这个讲话的。就像欧洲其他地方和美国一样，法国的汽车工业也受到这次危机的重创。萨科齐的刺激计划的一部分将用来提振法国的汽车行业。

Italy, Germany, Spain and Britain have also unrolled similar plans worth tens-of-billions of dollars.

意大利、德国、西班牙和英国也都出台了类似的价值上百亿美元的经济刺激计划。

While France has so far narrowly escaped a recession - which is defined as two successive periods of negative growth - it is widely expected to be in recession next year. The 15-nation eurozone, which includes France, is already in recession.

尽管法国到目前为止躲过了一场经济衰退，人们普遍预期法国在明年会陷入衰退。包括法国在内的15国欧元区目前已经陷入了衰退。衰退的定义是国内生产总值连续两个季度出现负增长。