ECB President Christine Lagarde signals no intervention in France’s fiscal crisis

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The president of the European Central Bank played down speculation about intervention in France’s ballooning budget crisis on Wednesday.

Asked whether there are plans for the ECB to step in, Christine Lagarde said the solution to the precarious financial state of the European Union’s second-largest economy would be domestic.

“There are particular circumstances that lead to some countries being more affected, France being a case in point,” she told the CNN Global Perspectives event in Bangkok. “For that one, the primary and first solution lies at home in France, and it has to do with fiscal policies.”

France has been embroiled in a rapidly escalating public debt crisis that risks dragging the EU down with it. The financial pressure rapidly snowballed in recent weeks as bond yields spike and unprecedented student protests rock the country.

Public debt has reached nearly 120% of GDP, while the benchmark 10-year bond yields surged to nearly 5% – the highest level in more than two decades – pushing up borrowing costs and slowing economic activity.

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France’s student protests highlight a debt crisis that could spill over to the rest of Europe

All this, coupled with the country’s high social welfare spending, leaves the government little room for maneuver, let alone to address the demands of students, who want solutions to staff shortages and dilapidated school buildings. Investors are also concerned that efforts to reduce the deficit may be hampered, with a presidential election coming next year.

Lagarde, however, also highlighted that rising bond yields are not unique to France. Bond yields in major economies such as the United States, Germany and Japan have all jumped in recent weeks, as a result of a confluence of factors including rising government debt and a prolonged energy shock caused by the Iran war.

CNN’s Hanna Ziady and John Towfighi contributed to this report.

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欧洲中央银行行长周三淡化了有关干预法国日益严重的预算危机的猜测。

当被问及欧洲央行是否有计划介入时，克里斯蒂娜·拉加德表示，解决欧盟第二大经济体岌岌可危的金融状况的办法应该在国内。

“有些国家受到的影响更大，这是由一些特殊情况造成的，法国就是一个例子，”她在曼谷举行的CNN全球展望活动上表示。“对于法国而言，首要的解决方案在于法国国内，这与财政政策有关。”

法国深陷迅速升级的公共债务危机，这场危机有可能将欧盟拖入深渊。近几周来，随着债券收益率飙升和前所未有的学生抗议活动席卷全国，金融压力迅速恶化。

公共债务已接近 GDP 的 120%，而基准 10 年期债券收益率飙升至近 5%——这是二十多年来的最高水平——推高了借贷成本，减缓了经济活动。

阿卜杜勒·萨布尔/路透社

法国学生抗议活动凸显了可能蔓延至欧洲其他地区的债务危机。

所有这些，再加上该国高额的社会福利支出，使得政府几乎没有回旋余地，更遑论满足学生们提出的解决师资短缺和校舍破旧问题的诉求。投资者也担心，由于明年即将举行总统选举，削减赤字的努力可能会受到阻碍。

然而，拉加德也强调，债券收益率上升并非法国独有。近几周来，美国、德国和日本等主要经济体的债券收益率均大幅上涨，这是多种因素共同作用的结果，包括政府债务上升以及伊朗战争造成的长期能源冲击。

CNN的汉娜·齐亚迪和约翰·托菲吉对本报道亦有贡献。