For years Greece has been considered in Europe as the paragon of mismanagement. Not without reason, since the country caused a major financial crisis from 2010 for having allowed its public finances to drift. Its debt had then exploded, as had the interest rates at which it borrowed — this was to cover the risk for the crazy lenders who ventured to risk their money in Athens. And we, in Paris, watched the Hellenes spoil themselves with superiority: these olive oil drinkers were punished for where they had sinned. After all, didn’t France have almost the same credit as Germany, one of the best in the world?
Fifteen years later, the situation is turned upside down. At the end of the week, the interest rate at which France borrowed was at 2.91%, a hair’s breadth from that of Greece (3.11%). And now far from that of Germany (2.13%). Here is the worrying warning that the financial markets are sending us: France’s cost of credit is now close to that of Greece. The level of interest rates is in fact an inverted thermometer of the confidence that a country inspires. Investors show no quarter to compulsive spenders and charge very high prices for their loans.
