Reindustrialization, energy transition, health, education… The great challenges of the coming decades will require colossal investments by public authorities.
Questioned in BFM Business during his congratulations to the press, the president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, already warns: “I do not see how with such a debt burden we will be able to finance the necessary investments for our fellow citizens in the energy transition, the climate transition, but also education, hospitals, innovation, research…”.
Find “at least 12 billion euros in lasting savings”
The high magistrate considers it inconceivable to implement “good public policies for our fellow citizens if we do not have healthy public finances.” He therefore calls for the restoration of public finances to begin from the next budget: “What I say, and Bruno Le Maire knows it perfectly, is that at least 12 billion euros of lasting savings must be found to guarantee “The 2025 budget allows us to respect a trajectory that is not extraordinarily ambitious,” he explains, while the Government does not foresee a return of less than 3% of the public deficit before 2027.
“And when I say at least, it’s because if there were more tax cuts, if it were to happen that growth was substantially lower than announced, that revenues were lower than announced, at that point, we’re going to have to find a little bit more,” , warns the president of the Court of Auditors, regretting that there have been “very few savings” in the 2024 budget, apart from those related to the disconnection of Covid aid and support for households and companies facing the rapid increase in energy prices.
A “slightly optimistic” growth forecast
France’s debt, which exceeds 3 trillion euros, that is, more than 110% of GDP, “is considerable” and “paralyzes public action,” recalls Pierre Moscovici, adding that the debt burden “will be 57 thousand million euros from 2024 and 84 billion euros in 2027. Under these conditions, “we cannot afford to get into more debt and we need to get out of debt.”
According to him, it is impossible “to build the investment wall that our country needs if we do not reduce the mountain of debt in which we find ourselves.” He also recalled the poor results of France compared to its neighbors: “We are already on the podium of the most indebted countries in the euro zone: there are Greece, Italy and France”, while “Portugal, Belgium, Spain, which had two years ago have fallen below.
And comparisons run the risk of being fruitless for a few more years, when France is one of the countries “whose debt will decrease the least” and whose “deficit would return to less than 3% at the latest,” the top judge emphasizes. Therefore, the objective is not only “unambitious”, but, according to him, it is “contaminated by a certain number of hypotheses” as favorable as they are improbable…
Because, in view of the international context, the growth announced by the government of 1.4% in 2024 seems “a little optimistic”, notes Pierre Moscovici. Ainsi, “il faudra, le moment venu, pour la préparation des décisions et dans le cadre de l’exécution du budget, qu’on soit capable d’avoir la vérité (…) sur ce que sera la croissance”, poursuit -He. And he adds: “Honestly, I look at the state of the forecasts of all national or international organizations, I do not see any that predict 1.4% for France.”
Those who say they expect from Gabriel Attal’s general policy statement “the most precise light possible” on public finances, warns that growth will certainly be necessary but not “sufficient” to reduce deficits. “Everyone knows and the President of the Republic is aware that growth in 2024 will be low and that the growth forecast for the coming years is not on the order of that of the Thirty Glorious Years…”
“There is room for maneuver”
Beyond growth, there are not many solutions to reduce public debt: “Increase taxes? We already have a very important mandatory contribution rate… But it is a political debate in which I do not want to enter,” indicates Pierre Moscovici. . What remains for him is the “essential lever”, that is, “the control of public spending that does not replace growth but rather increases it. It is imperative to control the debt.”
“When I say ‘domain,’ I don’t think about the plane, I don’t think about stupid policies,” he explains, however. Therefore, he believes that the review of public spending undertaken in 2023 by the Government is a good “start”. “That’s what spending reviews are for: to lift the hood of public policies to ask ourselves how we can do at least as well, or even better, with nothing more and be possible with less, and that there be room for maneuver,” says the president of the Court of Accounts.
While he acknowledges that the public finance review exercise “was in its infancy last year,” he understands that “the system is much more robust this year” and says he is “completely willing to contribute to it.”
Source: BFM TV
