| Author (Person) | Hall, Ben |
|---|---|
| Series Title | Financial Times |
| Series Details | 15.3.10 |
| Publication Date | 15/03/2010 |
| Content Type | News |
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Report of a FT interview with Christine Lagarde, France's Finance Minister, March 2010. She said Germany’s trade surpluses built on holding down labour costs may be unsustainable for the other countries in the eurozone. This was seen as an unusually blunt warning to Berlin. Mrs Lagarde said Berlin should consider boosting domestic demand to help deficit countries regain competitiveness and sort out their public finances. Her comments break a long-standing taboo between the French and German governments about macroeconomic imbalances inside the 16-country eurozone bloc which have been dramatically exposed by the Greek debt crisis. After Wolfgang Schäuble, her German counterpart, had proposed a European Monetary Fund associated with much stiffer penalties for breaking the EU’s fiscal rules in the previous week, Ms Lagarde outlined her own thinking about closer economic policy co-ordination, laying bare the different visions of 'economic government' held by Paris and Berlin. |
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| Subject Categories | Economic and Financial Affairs |
| Countries / Regions | Europe, France, Germany |
