PARIS (MNI) – France is not endangered by the spreading Eurozone
debt crisis and is ready to come to the aid of Portugal and Spain to
ward off market speculation, government spokesman and budget minister
Francois Baroin said Monday.
After the terms of the EU/IMF support package for Ireland were
hammered out this weekend, the budget minister estimated in a radio
interview that France was “neither threatened nor targeted” by the
financial markets and was moving farther away “each day” from the
Damocles sword hanging over the Eurozone.
“We have one of the best [sovereign debt] ratings in this unstable
world and amid the concerns of investors — one of the best ratings
alongside Germany,” Baroin insisted.
In contrast to more vulnerable governments, France has a high
private saving rate of 17%, a banking system “among the most solid, with
the best ratios,” a diversified economy with a qualified labor force and
has launched structural reforms to consolidate public finances, he said.
“We are absolutely determined to make profound reforms and reduce the
deficits.”
France will return to its pre-crisis deficit level of 3% of GDP by
2013 “whatever the cost,” the minister reiterated.
Baroin played down the unresolved concerns of the markets about the
Irish aid packaged: “They will be reassured, because they will see the
European response.”
“We will save the euro!” he said. “It’s an instrument that will not
be taken hostage.”
If Portugal and Spain should need support from the EU and the IMF,
France “will be there,” the minister assured.
–Paris newsroom +331 4271 5540; Email: stephen@marketnews.com
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