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French press review 8 December 2016

As air pollution in much of urban France shows no signs of dispersing, traffic restrictions continue in Paris and are to be extended today to the south-eastern city of Lyon. What impact will the fall of rebel-held sectors of the Syrian city of Aleppo have on the civil war? And why are bank interest rates likely to stay low for longer?

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Le Monde gives pride of place to the fact that traffic restrictions remain in place in Paris and will today be extended to other urban centres as the air pollution crisis continues.

Here in the capital, where winter air quality is at its worst for the longest period in a decade, the authorities are blaming fine particles from motor traffic and wood fires, trapped close to the surface by an extended period of calm, dry weather.

Only vehicles bearing odd-numbered licence plates can legally use the roads in the city and near suburbs this Thursday, the third consecutive day of alternate bans. It's the fourth time in 20 years that such traffic restrictions have been imposed in Paris but they have never before been enforced for more than a single day.

The south-eastern city of Lyon will impose similar restrictions today, for the first time ever.

According to Le Monde, the whole effort may be a waste of time anyway, because too few motorists are respecting the rules. Tuesday's restrictions saw traffic reduced by between just five and 10 percent by comparison with an ordinary day. The last time restrictions were enforced, in 2014, a 20 percent reduction in the number of cars resulted in a drop in pollution of between six and 10 percent, depending on the particles recorded.

The paper says the only long-term solution is a reduction of the number of cars in the city, especially older models which are not up to modern emissions requirements.

Assad on brink of major victory in Aleppo

Le Figaro turns its attention to the Syrian city of Aleppo where troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are on the brink of dislodging anti-regime rebels from their remaining strongholds in three or four eastern districts of the city.

The right-wing daily says that a victory for Assad in Aleppo will completely alter the balance of power in the Syrian conflict. It will enable the up-to-now embattled president to insist on political negotiations to end the five-year war in which Assad has been supported by both Russia and Iran. As the military victor, the Syrian ruler will go into such negotiations in a position of strength.

Left-leaning daily Libération chooses to emphasise the fact that Assad has refused all talk of a ceasefire, despite international appeals, suggesting that he intends to use this occasion to crush his opponents and their supposed civilian supporters militarily as well. An estimated 270,000 civilians are still trapped in east Aleppo.

Bank interest rates unlikely to interest savers for some time

The main story in business paper Les Echos offers to explain why interest rates are likely to remain low for the foreseeable future.

The analysts expect next year to see the end of the European Central Bank's extremely generous policy of printing money and a gradual increase in US interest rates. But that's not going to change much in Europe, simply because growth industries like the digital/computing sector typically require very small initial capital and so provide a very weak encouragement to people to save in order to finance investment.

Since the Lehman Brothers crash in 2008, banks now tend to invest in safe securites, again meaning lower rates of return.

Finally, given the current gloomy economic climate, individual savers will continue to be encouraged by the low rates of return to spend their money and thus boost consumer spending and the economy. Except that many such savers are scared about losing their jobs and so are holding onto their cash, even if the rates paid by the banks are ridiculously low.

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