France has to carry out its planned cuts in spending and reduce its deficit in order to keep its top AAA credit rating, a minister said on TV.
“The objective of maintaining the AAA rating is an objective that is a stretch and which in part conditions the savings policies that we want to have,” French Budget Minister Francois Baroin told Canal Plus on Sunday.
“We have to maintain our AAA, reduce our indebtedness to avoid being too dependent on the markets,” he said.
The crucial “AAA” rating is the top ranking attributed by the international financial ratings agencies that evaluate the financial health of states, which allows them to borrow at more favorable rates.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has forecast the public deficit will run to 8.2 percent of GDP this year, 6 percent next year and 4.6 percent in 2012.
If this trend continues, the French public deficit will not return to the eurozone Stability Pact’s theoretical maximum limit of 3 percent in 2013, and that is conditional on achieving growth of 2.5 percent from next year.
While many of France’s neighbors have announced harsh spending cuts, Sarkozy has been cautious, refusing to speak of an austerity program.
However, the government is planning to tighten health spending, reform pension rules and raise the minimum age for retirement in a bid to control mounting debt.
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