Paris (AFP)
The French Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, wanted the Eurogroup, whose telephone meeting is scheduled for Wednesday on the impact of the coronavirus, to put "on the table the possibility of using the" budgetary instrument "to relaunch the 'economy.
"I wish that we put on the table the possibility of using the budgetary instrument if we realize within a few weeks that the growth of the euro zone is really badly hit", said the minister on BFM Business a few hours before the meeting, and the day after a spectacular decision to revive the American central bank (Fed).
"The best weapon today is not monetary policy," he said.
Mr. Le Maire recalled that the possibility of resorting to fiscal stimulus appeared on the press release the previous day by the G7, the group of the seven richest economies (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan).
"I hope that this instrument will appear in today's Eurogroup press release," added Le Maire. "It is true that the debate is on this," he added, hinting that the 19 countries of the euro zone were not necessarily agreed to include this mention in the text they will broadcast after their meeting.
For several years, international institutions such as the IMF and the OECD and countries like France have regularly called on Germany to initiate a fiscal stimulus to redress the economy of the euro zone.
© 2020 AFP