The French Disconnection

Today, Christian Noyer, the chairman of the French Central Bank called for the credit rating agencies to focus on downgrading the UK before looking at France. His comments came in response to S&P placing France on “CreditWatch” – essentially monitoring it closely and considering an imminent downgrade.

The UK, Noyer argued, should be ahead of France in the queue for downgrades because it has:

• a higher deficit
• higher inflation
• lower growth

Now, I have no love for rating agencies but he has missed the point a bit. If the factors he mentioned were the only factors then fine but he forgot to mention anything to do with the reasons S&P gave for putting France on CreditWatch, namely that the countries using the Euro are in a massive pickle and their politicians have proved unable to decide upon a way to depickle themselves.

I understand why he’s upset with the UK. David Cameron’s performance last week of refusing any attempt of negotiation in favour of showing his backbenchers that he is tough on Europe and tough on the causes of Europe was probably not our proudest moment.

Even so, Noyer should have a bit more compassion. He might have to deal with Cameron every now and then but in the UK we have to deal with the guy every day, and it’s hard enough without foreign central banks petitioning the rating agencies for a UK downgrade.

Yes, our finances are in bad shape but we are a long way from risking default. How he could compare the UK’s credit worthiness with France’s without mentioning the Euro-shaped elephant in the room shows he is either clouding his judgment because he is in a big huff with David Cameron or he is simply disconnected with reality.

We might have equally incompetent politicians running our country but while we are not using the same currency as Greece or Italy and while we have the ability to determine our own monetary policy, it should be no surprise to Noyer or anyone else that when it comes to worries about debt repayments, all eyes are on Europe.

RedEaredRabbit