France's economy is in better shape than the U.K.'s, Finance Minister Francois Baroin said Friday, repeating a line of defense used by other French officials in recent days to defend the country ahead of Standard & Poor's decision on whether France will keep its triple-A rating.
"It's true the economic situation of the U.K. is very worrying, and one prefers to be French than British in terms of the economy at the moment," Baroin said on French radio station Europe 1.
His comments echo those of Prime Minister Francois Fillon and central bank chief Christian Noyer, who both pointed to comparative weaknesses in the U.K. economy. Noyer even said the U.K. should be downgraded before France.
"A downgrade doesn't seem justified to me when you look at the economic fundamentals," Noyer said in an interview with regional French paper Le Telegramme. "Or else a downgrade should come first for the U.K., which has a greater deficit, as much debt, more inflation, and less growth than us, and collapsing credit."
Fillon said that Europe faces "a challenge with relation to the European currency first and foremost because we're very indebted."
"But we're not the only ones. Our British friends have a higher deficit and more debt, and I would say that the ratings agencies have not yet noted that."
Baroin also said that European countries need to find a way of decreasing their dependency on rating firms.
Speaking after statistics agency Insee forecast a recession in France, Baroin said the government will not pursue more budget cuts and can meet its deficit target for 2011 with the 1.6% growth forecast by Insee.
France's government has been fine-tuning its communications strategy in recent days as the country is seen at greater risk of a downgrade than other triple-A-rated euro-zone states that were also put on negative credit watch last week by S&P. Among the euro zone's top-rated countries, France has by far the highest deficit, higher public-debt levels, and is the only one S&P has threatened with a two-notch downgrade.
S&P put France and most other countries in the euro-zone on review for a downgrade on Dec. 5, pending the results of the European Union summit at the end of last week. The five other triple-A ratings in the euro-zone were only threatened with a one-notch downgrade.
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