France must take rigorous steps to curb spending as soon as the economy starts growing again, its central bank governor said on Tuesday, in comments at odds with President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rejection on Monday of austerity measures.

“As soon as growth returns, we need to be very rigorous on the direction of spending and make sure that it increases less quickly than receipts, so that the deficit is rapidly re-absorbed,” Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France, told reporters.