Solid Renault profits drive recruitment push

French carmaker Renault said on Thursday it would create 1,000 permanent jobs in France this year off the back of a strong growth in profits in 2014.
Renault posted net profits of 1.89 billion euros ($2.14 billion), a huge jump from the 586 million last year.
However, overall group sales were up only marginally, with 41.05 billion euros in turnover -- a rise of 0.3 percent -- mainly due to unfavourable exchange rate movements.
Investors cheered the results, with Renault stocks on the Paris market up seven percent compared to the broader market which was 0.75 percent higher.
"We met all the objectives announced for 2014," said group chief executive and chairman Carlos Ghosn.
"2015 should allow us to take a new step forward, thanks to an unprecedented product offensive in the history of Renault," added Ghosn.
For the current year, Renault predicted that global car demand would increase by two percent, despite persistent weaknesses in the world economy.
"The European market should also show a slight positive growth (up two percent) while we continue to expect high volatility in our main emerging markets," Renault predicted.
Ghosn hailed the 1,000 jobs as "good news for Renault and good news for France", saying it showed that the company's "competitiveness efforts were bearing fruit."
Half of the jobs will be in factories, the other half in the group's engineering section, the firm said.