Business group in France protests economic freeze
| Paris
Demonstrators from the National Association of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses threw smoke bombs and firecrackers in the Paris Bourse Tuesday, Bourse sources said.
The group was campaigning to save companies which it said had been condemned to failure by the current price freeze here. Last month the government introduced a four-month freeze on prices and wages to counter the high rate of French inflation, currently at 13.8 percent.