PARIS (Reuters) – France’s financial situation is concerning with the budget deficit at one of its highest levels in history, newly appointed finance minister Antoine Armand said on Tuesday.
“The situation is serious … We are going to work hard to match the seriousness of this situation,” Armand told France Inter radio.
Unknown outside of Parisian political circles, the 33-year-old faces huge pressure to figure out how to rein in France’s budget deficit as it spirals towards 6% of GDP.
In a further sign of investor jitters about France, the country’s 10-year bond yield was just 1-1/2 basis points away from surpassing that of Spain for the first time since late 2007 on Monday.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
