Japanese minister urges France to stick with financial reforms
JAPAN’S finance minister warned France against abandoning fiscal discipline yesterday, telling new President Francois Hollande that it would be better if he did not act on his “heated” promises made before the election.
Jun Azumi said he wants Hollande to stick to plans made by outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy, and not to disrupt the international movement towards lower budget deficits.
“I want him to act based on understanding the schemes and thinking that we, the International Monetary Fund and the G7 have cultivated up to now,” said Azumi.
“Realistically, I think it is impossible to give up on fiscal rebuilding efforts.”
Japan has previously loaned money to the European Financial Stability Facility and said in March that it would continue to tap liquid euro assets in its foreign reserves providing that Europe works to resolve the region’s debt crisis.
However, Hollande appears to be moving in the opposite direction – he has pledged to balance the government’s budget in 2017, one year later than Sarkozy’s plan, and increase spending by hiring tens of thousands more teachers and by reducing the retirement age for some workers from 62 to 60.
The country’s leaders have also been concerned over the last year that the strength of the yen – and the weakness of the euro – are undermining Japanese firms’ competitiveness and so hitting the economy.
The euro fell another 0.3 per cent against the yen yesterday on renewed Eurozone worries.