French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire assured AFP on Saturday that Paris would continue to “pass structural reforms”, the day after the lowering of France’s financial rating by the Fitch agency.
“I believe that the facts invalidate the assessment of the Fitch agency. We are able to pass structural reforms for the country”, he said, citing the reform of unemployment insurance and that of pensions .
“And we will continue to pass structural reforms for the country,” he said in this statement to AFP.
Fitch lowered the French note on Friday evening, citing the strong social tensions at work around the pension reform.
“Political stalemate and social movements (sometimes violent) pose a risk to Macron’s reform program,” the rating agency said in a statement, announcing the downgrading of the French rating by one notch, to ” AA-” against “AA” previously.
“Even the arbitrators of the financial market give a red card to Emmanuel Macron on his management of the pension reform”, quipped on Twitter the chairman of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly Eric Coquerel (La France insoumise).
“Uncontrolled spending, industrial production at its lowest, inflation-indexed loans. France is spending more than it produces. The truth is catching up with us after years of impotence and demagogy”, attacked on the same network the president Republicans Eric Ciotti.
Bruno Le Maire for his part reaffirmed on Saturday his desire to carry out “a whole series of reforms which will accelerate the transformation of the French economic model”. He mentioned on this subject the “green industries bill which will be presented in a few days and which will make it possible to reindustrialize France, to open new industrial sites and to create new jobs”.
“Do not doubt our total determination to restore the nation’s public finances (…) to accelerate the deleveraging of the country, to reduce deficits and to accelerate the reduction of public expenditure”, declared the French minister from Stockholm where he takes part in a meeting of EU finance ministers.
Six weeks ago, the French government definitively adopted its pension reform project providing for a postponement of the legal age from 62 to 64, thanks to the support of article 49-3 of the Constitution which allows pass a text without a vote in Parliament.
This decision led to a clear hardening of the protest at the social level, and several days of violent demonstrations throughout the territory, recalling the episode of the yellow vests from 2018.
“This decision has sparked protests and strikes across the country and will likely strengthen radical and anti-establishment forces,” said Fitch, who had attached a negative outlook to his previous rating, i.e. the risk of a lowering.
The current situation could also “create pressure in favor of a more expansionary fiscal policy or a reversal of previous reforms”, fears the agency.
A “pessimistic assessment”, reacted on Saturday on Twitter the Renaissance deputy Jean-René Cazeneuve, general rapporteur of the finance committee, repeating the words used the day before by Bruno Le Maire.
Expected for an update of its rating last Friday, the agency Moody’s did not finally announce a new rating, while the agency S
29/04/2023 11:58:42 – Stockholm (AFP) © 2023 AFP
