State loans could help businesses

FRANCE should follow Germany and offer credit facilities to struggling businesses, President Sarkozy has said.

Speaking at a meeting attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Sarkozy said: “The idea of giving credit facilities to businesses is a good one.

“We’re going to do like Germany,” he added.

Critics of the government said that it had promised strict criteria to ensure banks continued to lend money when it voted through a rescue package for the finance industry in October.

The state’s willingness to offer its own credit facilities was proof that these conditions had failed, they said.

President Sarkozy has also said that France and Germany will work very closely to look at methods of saving their respective automobile industries.

Photo:Afp/Gerard Cerles