The American "agence de notation" Standard and Poors downgraded France's credit rating this week from AA+ to AA, on the grounds that France has not taken the measures necessary to plan growth in the longer term.
Now 2007 Nobel Prize winner for economics, American Paul Krugman has defended France saying that Standard and Poors are no better at judging than anyone else what measures will work. He says France is less indebted than Britain and that the gap is likely to widen.
He thinks the decision is more ideological than economic. France has increased taxes on the rich and refused to go along with the liberal economics mooted at the Davos meetings.
"Stop the French bashing" he says.
