This is one of the big projects that awaits Bercy during the second five-year term of Emmanuel Macron: the reduction of the French debt. Although it is now over 113%, France’s public debt is surely heading towards the 3 billion euro threshold.
In an interview in Sunday Newspaper (JDD)Bruno Le Maire underlines his desire to reverse the trend at the end of his term: “With the president and the prime minister, we are determined to reduce the debt from 2026 and bring the public deficit below 3% in 2027.”
“Irresponsible for future generations”
An objective that has become necessary due to the less lax financing conditions. “Yesterday the French State was in debt at 0%, today at 2.5%. As a result, the debt burden has gone from 31,000 million in 2021 to 42,000 million in 2022, recalls the Minister of Economy and Finance. It would be irresponsible place this burden on future generations.
Although public debt already flirted with 100% of GDP in 2017, he explains that it was the successive shocks of Covid and the energy crisis that caused it to widen with significant spending.
“Whatever It Takes Is Over”
To remedy this situation, Bruno Le Maire bets on a lever: “produce more than we spend”. “This presupposes, therefore, the creation of more wealth: we are on the right track as our growth is positive, we have created 1.6 million jobs in five years and our nation has become the most attractive in Europe. But that also presupposes curbing public spending “, he tempers himself.
A review of spending will soon be carried out to “delicately pass” the public spending of the State, local authorities and the social sphere.
This interview is also an opportunity to confirm that the “whatever the cost” policy has effectively ended after having allowed “avoiding a wave of bankruptcies, an explosion of unemployment from which France would not have recovered” in the words of the boss. de Bercy who insists on the exceptionality of “this massive response”. “Whatever it takes is over.
But this does not mean the end of the protection of the weakest, companies and households in difficulties, recalls the Minister of Economy and Finance. We maintain protection against rising energy prices, of course for the French, but also for our industries, our artisans, our bakeries.
Source: BFM TV
