France: German Bundesbank President Says France Needs to Control Its Deficit

The head of the German central bank said Monday that France should not give up trying to bring its government deficit below 3 percent of gross domestic product, adding to the criticism being heaped on President François Hollande of France from abroad.

Jens Weidmann, president of the Bundesbank, cloaked his rebuke in the language of French-German solidarity and was considerably more diplomatic than Maurice M. Taylor Jr., the head of the American tire maker Titan International, who sparked a furor last week when he told the French industry minister that French workers were lazy. 

Still, Mr. Weidmann was the latest prominent person to lecture the increasingly defensive French on how they should manage their economy. 

Speaking in Paris at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales, a leading business school, Mr. Weidmann noted that unemployment in France was above 10 percent while France’s share of world exports had declined by 25 percent since the euro made its debut. Total government debt “has reached a level that could potentially hurt growth,” Mr. Weidmann said.

Read more: Bundesbank President Says France Needs to Control Its Deficit - NYTimes.com