Jean-Pierre Robin: “France has lost its exorbitant privilege as the “eldest daughter” of the euro zone”

Words and numbers. France is the sick man of the eurozone. The formula is popular, and the financial markets quantify it with diabolical precision. Today, lenders require an interest rate of 4.85% to buy a 10-year OAT, the comparable French Treasury bond, compared to only 3.48% for the 10-year German Bund, the equivalent debt security of the German state, which constitutes the benchmark in the European Union. The “spread”, the difference in yield between the loans of the two largest EU economies, reached 137 basis points (1.37%), whereas it was only 80 points on August 31, a month and a half ago.

The deterioration is rapid, considerable and has serious consequences. As David Amiel, the Minister of Public Accounts, recalled last weekend, 1% additional interest rate ultimately represents a burden of 36 billion euros more. The calculation is simple: while the public debt reaches an outstanding amount of 3,595.5 billion…