Paris - Sales of new passenger cars in France as measured by auto registrations plunged by 13.1 per cent in February, the Committee of French Autmobile Producers (CCFA) announced on Monday.

The decline hit both domestic brands and foreign-made vehicles. Sales of Peugeot cars fell by nearly 20 per cent in February, while the struggling General Motors subsidiary Opel saw sales in France decline by 35 per cent.

Only the Korean brand Hyundai (up 3.9 per cent) and Italian manufacturer Fiat (plus 0.3 per cent) saw sales rise in February, the CCFA said.

Paris - The French government is prepared to admit officially that in 2009 the country will go through its worst recession since the end of the Second World War, the daily Le Figaro reported on Monday.

Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who had earlier minimized the effect of the global economic crisis on France, will on Wednesday report to the cabinet that France's GDP will contract by 1.5 per cent this year.

The French government's previous official forecast for 2009 predicted GDP growth of 0.2 to 0.5 per cent.

Paris - French bank Caisse d'Epargne said Thursday it lost 2 billion euros (2.57 billion dollars) in 2008 due primarily to huge losses incurred by its investment bank subsidiary, Natixis.

Earlier Thursday, Natixis reported a loss of 2.8 billion euros for 2008 because of its exposure in the US subprime crisis.

Caisse d'Epargne said that the Natixis loss cost the bank 1.6 billion euros in turnover, which totalled 2.2 billion euros before taxes.

Paris - An appeals court in the French city of Bordeaux has frozen some 4.2 million euros (5.37 million dollars) in two French bank accounts belonging to the president of Gabon, Omar Bongo, the daily Sud Ouest reported on Thursday.

The court wants to force Bongo to pay 1.131 million euros to a French businessman, Rene Cardona, stemming from an incident in 1996.

At the time, Cardona's son had to pay the equivalent of 457,347 euros to Bongo to free his father from a jail cell in the Gabonese capital Libreville.

Paris  - Despite the worst global economic crisis in more than 50 years, the three-day Paris auction of the art collection of the late fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent fetched 373.5 million euros (476 million dollars) by its Wednesday conclusion.

The total represents by far the world record for the sale of a private collection and well exceeded the estimates of 200 million to 300 million euros set by Christie's auction house, the main organizer of the sale.