France is in a worse state than Britain was at the time of its 1976 bail-out by the International Monetary Fund, one of the nation’s best-known businessmen has declared, reports The Sunday Telegraph.
Henri de Castries, chairman and chief executive of Axa, the world’s largest insurer by premium income, said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph that the government of the French president, François Hollande, must learn the lessons of Britain’s experience.
“The UK was not in great shape in the early 1970s,” he said. “Mr Hollande has to decide if he wants to be Harold Wilson or Tony Blair.
“So far he has been ambiguous. I hope he is going to go for Blair. I am not asking him to become Margaret Thatcher.
“It could get worse but I am convinced that at one stage or another, reason will prevail.”
The action of Mr Wilson’s successor as prime minister, James Callaghan, in asking the IMF for a £2.3bn loan in 1976 is generally regarded as one of Britain’s lowest economic points of the post-war era. When asked if France’s heavily-indebted economy is in an even worse condition, Mr de Castries replied: “Yes, because the world has changed."
Read more of this report from The Sunday Telegraph.