AFP/Paris/London
France fuelled a cross-Channel row yesterday, describing Britain’s economy as “very worrying” as the press in London reacted with fury to French calls for British debt to be downgraded. The row comes after Britain clashed with France at an EU summit and refused to join members of the eurozone currency bloc in a new fiscal pact, prompting French President Nicolas Sarkozy to declare there are now “two Europes”. Despite widespread condemnation in London of criticism from Paris on Thursday, Finance Minister Francois Baroin picked up the issue again, saying the French economy was in better shape than the British one. “It’s true that the economic situation in Great Britain is very worrying and that we prefer being French rather than British on the economic front at the moment,” Baroin said on Europe 1 radio. “We don’t want to be given any lessons and we don’t give any,” he said. Baroin’s comments came as the British press yesterday slammed French officials for suggesting that ratings agencies were targeting the wrong country for a debt downgrade by looking at France. “They should start by downgrading the United Kingdom, which has greater deficits, as much debt, more inflation and less growth than us,” central bank chief Christian Noyer had told regional newspaper Le Telegramme. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon picked up on the theme on Thursday, telling reporters in Sao Paolo that ratings agencies seemed to be ignoring the state of British government finances. “We are challenged on the European currency, first of all because we are too indebted,” he said. “But we are not the only ones. Our British friends are even more indebted than we are and have a higher deficit, but the ratings agencies do not seem to notice this.” A Downing Street spokeswoman said Prime Minister David Cameron had not spoken to Sarkozy, but said he was expecting to hold more talks in coming days. Asked about the French comments on Britain’s economic issues, the spokeswoman said: “We are very clear. We have a credible plan endorsed by numerous international organisations. “The bond yields underline the credibility of that plan.” This was a reference to the cost to Britain of borrowing to fund its debt, which is about as low as the eurozone benchmark German rate. British officials would not be drawn into responding directly to the French attacks, but the British press reacted furiously. Noyer’s comments were dismissed as “outrageous” and “plain wrong” by The Times. “It is simply not the job of a central bank governor to urge the downgrading of another country’s credit,” it added. Popular tabloid The Sun ran a scathing leading article attacking Noyer under the headline “Gall of Gaul”. “You find out who your friends are in a crisis,” it continued. “We shouldn’t be surprised, then, when the head of the Bank of France tries to better his country’s economic position by sabotaging ours.” “Monsieur Noyer, you’re a AAA-rated fool,” it concluded. The Daily Telegraph, which splashed “France declares war of words on Britain” on its front-page, quoted Conservative lawmaker David Ruffley calling the comments “another example of Gallic self-delusion on an epic scale”. The French attacks came ahead of elections next year and as France’s statistics agency warned on Thursday the country will fall into a mild recession in the final quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2012. The INSEE statistics agency also said confidence among French industrial chiefs, based on a survey, had fallen by two points to 94 points in December. Analysts said French officials seemed to be looking to deflect attention from the country’s own economic concerns.