THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: President Nicolas Sarkozy has stated Britain is a country with "no industry" as he set out "shock measures" to reinvigorate France's faltering economy.
A UK official said: “It is not true. The percentage of GDP that is manufacturing is11 per cent, the same as in France.”
Manufacturing as a percentage of GDP was 11 per cent in the UK and in France in 2009, the last comparable figures.
“UK industrial production as a share of GDP was 15 per cent, compared to 12.5 per cent in France in the same year. What he said is not true. He has got an election.”
Defending his efforts to save the euro and the French economy, Mr Sarkozy said: “The financial crisis is calming down. Europe is no longer on the edge of the abyss...The elements of a stabilisation of the financial situation in the world and in Europe are in place.”
Mr Sarkozy all but announced his candidacy for the two-round election, due to be held on April 22 and May 6. “I have a rendezvous with the French,” he said. “I will not shirk my responsibility.”
But the uncharacteristically downbeat president admitted to having "regrets" about some of his policies, which he said he would address "at the appropriate time".
His remarks came a day after Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany backed his — as yet unannounced — re-election bid by unexpectedly announcing that she would join him on the campaign trail.
In a hour-long “do or die” TV interview broadcast simultaneously by nine channels, Mr Sarkozy adopted Churchillian tones as he unveiled measures from reducing working time and salaries to save jobs to raising VAT in order to cut employers’ contributions by €13 billion (£11 billion). However, the man who staked his presidency on boosting the French economy faces a tough task as he lags in the polls, unemployment stands at a 12-year high and public debt is at record levels. Read on and comment » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Monday, January 30, 2012
