Bruno Le Maire

G7 finance ministers are expected Saturday to agree a broad plan to use interest from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine, paving the way for a potential agreement among leaders next month.

Bulgaria is gearing up to nominate Kristalina Georgieva for a second term as the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to Dimitar Radev, the governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) and the governor of the IMF for Bulgaria.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors' summit in Brazil.

"I met with Minister Mehmet Şimşek to discuss how Türkiye and the United States can work together to address crucial regional issues," Yellen wrote on the social media platform X.

France and Germany will discuss later this month how strict new EU fiscal and debt rules should be, to create a basis for a pan-European deal by the end of the year, the finance ministers of both countries said on Thursday.

Germany, France and Italy have said they would cooperate more closely on the procurement of raw materials as Europe seeks to reduce its reliance on imports from countries such as China.

"Better diversification of our raw material supply is economic security," German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement.

French nuclear power is "an absolute red line" and non-negotiable, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on June 8, following Franco-German disagreements over the role of nuclear energy in Europe.

Nuclear-reliant Paris has already irked Berlin by insisting on giving nuclear energy a starring role in European plans to produce more green technology in Europe.

France will go ahead with structural reforms to overhaul its economy after credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded the country's debt worthiness, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has told AFP.    

Fitch downgraded France's debt worthiness a notch to "AA-" from "AA" on April 28, claiming the country's "fiscal metrics are weaker than peers".    

The turmoil in the US banking sector following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) should have only a limited impact on European banks, which are organized differently, said ratings agencies Moody's and S&P Global on Tuesday, AFP reported.

France's finance minister has pledged to keep electricity costs in check for consumers as European energy prices soar.    

The Paris government has put in place an energy price cap to shield households until Dec. 31 and Bruno Le Maire said that next year, expected hikes would be "contained increases".    

French President Emmanuel Macron faced the daunting challenge of uniting a deeply divided nation Monday after winning re-election in a battle against Marine Le Pen that saw the far right come its closest yet to taking power.

Centrist Macron won 58.54 percent of the vote in the second-round run-off compared with 41.46 for Le Pen, according to final results from the interior ministry.