France to raise retirement age to 62

France is to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 in 2018 in an effort to get the country's spiralling public finances under control, the labour minister said today.

Eric Woerth called the measure - already hotly contested by the opposition Socialist Party and unions - a "real moral obligation", given France's burgeoning deficit and its ageing population, which he said threatens the viability of the money-losing pension system.