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() - France will take further steps to reduce expenditure if the government receives insufficient revenues, the country’s Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Friday.

In an interview with the German business daily Handelsblatt, Lagarde said the French government had pledged to reduce its budget deficit to 4.6% of GDP by 2012. If the revenues aren’t adequate, then the government must take further steps to reduce expenditure, she said.

Further, the minister said France’s AAA credit rating is not under pressure. Lagarde said she is constantly in conversation with the rating agencies and explaining them about the government’s economic policy.

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It’s been a pretty miserable period to be in the stock market. The past two months represent the worst May-June performance for the S&P 500 Index ($INX) in 48 years.

Since the Dubai debt crisis emerged in November, investors have slowly turned their attention from the sugar rush that was the economy’s initial stimulus-fueled return to growth in July 2009 to what lies ahead. And they don’t like what they see. We’ve got too much debt in the developed economies, lackluster job creation in the United States and a housing market that’s beginning to slide again. As a result, stocks have been dead money while safe-haven assets such as the U.S. dollar, Treasury bonds and gold have moved higher.

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On the first of July the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the establishment of the new Pre-exsting Condition Insurance Plans that will offer coverage to uninsured Californians. In California, the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan will be administered by the state. Some states chose to have the Department of Health and Human Services to administer the plans.

If you are one of the many uninsured in California due to a pre-existing condition and have not had health insurance in the past six months, you may be eligible to purchase on of these plans.

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() - China will continue to maintain a “moderately loose” monetary policy and further improve the yuan exchange rate mechanism, the country’s central bank says.

The People’s Bank of China said the domestic economy is heading in the right direction, but that it continues to face a difficult task in containing inflation expectations, rebalancing the economy and maintaing growth. “In the second half of the year, in accordance with the State Council’s unified plan, we will continue a moderately loose monetary policy,” the bank said in a statement.

The central bank also reiterated its stance with regards to exchange rate policy, saying that it would steadily improve the yuan exchange rate mechanism.

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The number of Americans paying credit card bills late has declined, report shows
It appears that consumers are putting themselves in a slightly better financial position, according to a new report that reveals credit card late – stage delinquency rates have declined for the fifth consecutive month. Delinquency rates are utilized by financial experts to measure future losses. The current declines recorded suggest that charge off rates may also decrease in the coming months.

“Seasonal factors are influencing the improvement in delinquencies and could benefit charge offs in the coming months,” Fitch Ratings managing director Michael Dean said. Full Article…