The worst of theimpact on the French economy of the yellow-vest protests, which rocked citycentres across France last winter, is yet to come, a report said, predicting awave of bankruptcies among small businesses in the second half of the year.
The initial impactof the yellow-vest protests, which started in November as a revolt over highprices at the pumps and morphed into a broader challenge to President EmmanuelMacron's policies, was limited.
The nationalstatistics office estimated it at 0.1 percentage points of national output or 2billion euros ($2.28 billion) in the final quarter of last year.
But lawmakers fromthe opposition-controlled Senate said in a report published this week that theaccumulated loss in turnover, which reached 30 percent in city centres onaverage over six months, will start taking its toll in the coming months.
The knock-on effectof delayed payments to suppliers, as well as temporarily suspended tax billsthat will eventually come due, are expected to push many small shopkeepers intobankruptcy, lawmakers say.
"Although themovement is losing steam, our hearings have revealed that the most serious andinsidious consequences are yet to come," lawmakers wrote in the report,citing feedback from local commercial courts.
"It's in thesecond half that a wave of debt defaults should happen, as well as a criticalincrease in the number of businesses going into administration or evenbankruptcies," the report added.
Though the protestshave gradually eased since December, the report says business is not comingback strong enough to make up for the losses as consumers changed their habits,avoiding weekend shopping for example.
Macron unveiledmore than 10 billion euros in concessions in December to protesters, blowingout France's budget deficit.
Turnout atprotests, which were held every Saturday, have dwindled in recent weeks, withonly a few hundred protesters marching peacefully in Paris last week.
