\'Yellow vest\' protests slow French economy\, piling pressure on Macron

Coming to the table... in a bid to unite a nation divided - French President Emmanuel Macron meeting with ministers and workers unions after a fourth weekend of anti-government protests.

France has seen the most violent unrest in decades And what started as a protest over high living costs has morphed into a broader anti-Macron rebellion.

He'll make a televised address on Monday to try and end the "yellow vest" crisis that''s rocked cities across France.

(SOUNDBITE) CITY INDEX ANALYST, KEN ODELUGA, SAYING: "It's the strongest challenge that Macron has actually seen to his reform drive.

It's clear that he has decided that the extent of it, the longevity of these protests is unsettling to his project.

It's very very difficult to see how he could push through this for the project to actually survive into a second term." The Bank of France is reacting too.

Halving it's fourth quarter forecast for the euro zone's number two economy to just 0.2 percent.

Major French hotel, transport and retail stocks also fell on Monday.

Hotels company Accor was down by 0.7 percent while airports company ADP fell 0.9 percent and retailer Carrefour also lost ground.

The upheaval in the Christmas season has dealt a heavy blow as road blocks disrupt supply chains.

(SOUNDBITE) (French) FURNITURE SHOP OWNER, GREGORY CARAY, SAYING: " Everyone is losing business and it is so violent that at the end of the day nobody understands what is going on, what they want, what they don't want, there is no organisation and all of the businesses in the area have to pay for the damage.

Macron's last televised address was last month, when he said he would not be forced into changing policy by "thugs".

Since then though, he has cancelled a planned rise in fuel taxes to try to defuse the situation.