AT THE END of 2005, Michel Pébereau, chairman of BNP Paribas, delivered a damning report on the state of French public finances, pointing out that having successive administrations operate in deficit for each of the past 25 years, borrowing money to meet current spending and to defer the cost of health and social benefits to future generations, had left the national debt in “an extremely disturbing state”. Worse, he pointed out that while already alarming official statistics showed that the debt-to-GDP ratio had risen inexorably from 33% in 1990 to 66% by the start of 2006, this failed to convey the true seriousness of the situation.
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