The Court of Auditors considers the scenario of public funds in France “worrying” | EUROtoday

When it involves budgeting, it's all about semantics. “I’m always looking for the right adjective”to explain the scenario of public accounts, admits the president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici. “I'm going to stick with the one I've been using for the last few months, which is 'concerning'. But I'm actually tempted to say that we're a little beyond that. We are really in the imperative for action, for me the situation is serious. »

This year, more than in previous years, the institution is particularly harsh on the government and its management of public accounts in its annual report made public on Tuesday March 12, most of which is devoted to adapting to the transition. climatic. His diagnosis is even more so “in the light of the analyzes and information we now have, on the means we will need to mobilize to adapt to climate change”he continues.

Despite the reality operation on the accounts carried out by Bercy on February 18, throughout which the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, decreased his development forecast for 2024 from 1.4% to 1% and introduced 10 billion euros of further financial savings, the ministry's assumptions regarding development, inflation, tax revenues and the general public deficit are nonetheless thought of very “optimistic” by the Court, each for the yr 2024 and for subsequent years.

The development forecast of 1% particularly stays excessive, figuring out that the consensus of economists is round 0.7%, notes the report. As for the promised financial savings, they’re little recognized at this stage. Pierre Moscovici pleads for them to focus on as a precedence “lower quality spending”. “The plane means less money for the economy”, he mentioned. Matignon has additionally ordered three stories from the Court to feed into the evaluation of public expenditure initiated by the federal government: on the participation of native authorities within the restoration of accounts, on the exit from the Covid-19 and vitality disaster measures – the latter have value practically 260 billion euros of public cash since 2020, calculated the Court – and on the regulation of Health Insurance expenditure.

“50 billion euros in new savings”

In the meantime, uncertainties proceed to weigh on the yr 2024, underlines the report, beginning with the forecasts of tax revenues. These have been decrease than anticipated in 2023, with an surprising slowdown in company tax yield that Bercy struggles to elucidate. Public spending additionally stays greater than earlier than the well being disaster, and can proceed to extend below the mixed impact of the rise in rates of interest, the index revaluations of civil servants and the burden of the assorted legal guidelines of programming (on protection, justice, inside, analysis). The latter have multiplied lately, they now cowl 20% of the scope of State expenditure, and as much as 31% in 2027.

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