Alain Minc, the essayist and close informal adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy, announced on a website last week that in France “the cornerstone of economic policy will be to avoid losing the maximum AAA rating on the debt. Staying in the vanguard of countries with the most favourable taxes will be very important”.

Minc summarises the French economic strategy as a tightrope walk - a slow and careful reduction of the deficit while also avoiding any deterioration in the AAA rating.