French press review 17 January 2012

If you don't care about the eurozone and France's triple-A credit rating, then you might do well to avoid today's newspapers.

Le Monde's main story warns that the entire European salvage operation is in danger. This is because it will now cost more for each of the nine states recently downgraded by the Standard & Poor's ratings agency to borrow money - the lower your credit rating, the bigger the risk for the lender and the higher the interest rate. That's high finance, folks.

The eurozone currently needs about 810 billion euros to tide it over, and that's going to cost a lot. Worse, the downgrade risks destabilising the Franco-German tandem, since the Germans retain their triple-A status while the French find themselves sent to the back of the class. Then there's the Greeks, who upset the whole applecart in the first place, and now look like they will be broke again by March unless a new deal can be hammered out with the creditors.

Right-wing Le Figaro is having none of this Standard & Poor's nonsense. Look at Moody's and Fitch, the other big names in the financial ratings business. They, say Figaro, are really on the ball. Moody's has given France another three months to prove the long-term financial stability of the French economy, and Fitch says France will maintain its triple-A credit rating for the whole of this year, at least.

All of this has major political implications, of course, with the Socialists saying the downgrade proves the failure of President Sarkozy's fiscal policies. The right have hit back, saying Socialist joy at the bad news for France is simply not cricket. Sarko himself has been quick to stress that financial policy cannot be determined by faceless foreign agencies.

Regardless of the price of credit, the price of petrol has certainly increased. The average French energy bill has seen a 40 per cent increase over the past 12 months, with a litre of petrol now costing 1.55 euros. Business daily Les Echos blames the weakness of the euro for the huge increase.

Libération tries to get away from the dominant doom and gloom with 80 propositions for reforming France, but its headline still reads, "There's more to life than triple A".

Among the 80 proposals are a complete overhaul of the income tax system, increased investment in research, a justice system free of political strings and a reform of primary school.

Sadly, we've heard it all before. There must be an election looming.