The public deficit by 2022 should reach 4.8% of gross domestic product (GDP), “even less”, better than the government’s 5% target, while public debt would not exceed the unprecedented threshold of 3,000 million of euros, report the echoes Monday.
Consulted by AFP, the Ministry of Economy and Finance refused to confirm these figures.
The National Institute of Statistics (Insee) must reveal on Tuesday morning the level of France’s debt at the end of 2022, inflated by the health and then energy crisis, as well as the magnitude of the public deficit.
In January, the delegated minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, had already announced that the budget deficit for the year 2022 would be 151.5 billion euros, or 19.5 billion better than the forecasts of the latest Corrective Finance Law.
Record revenue for IS
This improvement is explained, in particular, by an additional tax collection of 7,000 million euros thanks to the dynamic Corporation Tax (IS). In January, Gabriel Attal estimated income tax collection at 62 billion euros by 2022, the highest level ever recorded, while the rate was reduced to 25% on January 1, 2022.
After skyrocketing in 2020 due to the health crisis, the public debt ratio began to fall slightly in 2021 thanks to a rebound in growth, reaching 112.8% of GDP.
By 2022, the Government is betting on a new decrease, to 111.6%, while the public deficit would be reduced to 5% of GDP according to the official objective, compared to 6.5% in 2021, in a context of slowdown growth to 2.6% last year.
These levels remain well above those that prevailed before the health and then energy crises, when debt was limited to less than 100% of GDP and the public deficit stood at 3% of GDP in 2019. The Government expects to present in mid-April its new stability program that marks the trajectory of public finances for the coming years.
Betting mainly on a faster rise in GDP than spending, which would be the object of “savings of several billion euros.” The executive anticipates growth of 1% in 2023.
Source: BFM TV
