For instance, France must import most of its oil. Oil is costly. So France pays a great deal of money to the oil-exporting nations. Also, France buys other products from various countries. Now, in recent times France has purchased more from other nations than it has sold to them. This has resulted in a deficit, a debt to those other countries. To pay that debt, France has to borrow money from other nations or from various banks.

France has external debts of about $10 billion, and these are growing. A Paris press headline declared: “Flashing Red for the French Economy.” The publication referred to unemployment of more than a million, triple the level of the early 1970’s; to inflation that was in double figures; and to a recent one-month foreign trade deficit of about $1 billion, triple what it was a year ago.