France has suspended its euro swaps programme, which was set up late last year to reduce the average maturity of its debt, because of volatility in the euro-denominated fixed income markets.

Agence France Trésor, the entity that manages France's government debt and the treasury, said on Tuesday: "The general conditions on the euro fixed income markets (notably the outright level and the volatility) since the beginning of the summer do not enable AFT to satisfactorily implement its debt average maturity reduction strategy through the swaps programme."