France's public deficit can be “greater than 5%” of GDP in 2023, confirms the federal government | EUROtoday

The public deficit can be “greater than 5%” of gross home product (GDP) in 2023, a degree ” higher “ that the target of 4.9% which had been set by the federal government, confirmed the Minister Delegate accountable for public accounts, Thomas Cazenave, Thursday March 21, after info from the World.

The minister, who invoked on Franceinfo a “new context” financial to clarify this slippage, nonetheless refused to verify info from the World in line with which the chief would now count on a deficit of round 5.6% of GDP. A determine talked about in the beginning of March by the director of the Treasury, Bertrand Dumont, throughout an inner assembly. “It’s INSEE [Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques] which publishes the public deficit figure for 2023 », swept away Mr. Cazenave, the day after meetings at the Elysée on the subject of public finances. INSEE must make this figure public on Tuesday March 26.

At the beginning of March, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, had already warned that the deficit would be “significantly above 4.9%” of GDP in 2023.

Target of a deficit decreased to 4.4% in 2024

Confirming these predictions, the Minister for Public Accounts put ahead a number of causes: the “slowdown” economic system of China, the battle in Ukraine, and even the difficulties of “European partners”, like Germany, which has “spring back” on France and weigh on progress and due to this fact on tax revenues. “It’s a form of new deal for our public financesassured Mr. Cazenave. The State reacted immediately. We have reduced state spending by 10 billion euros to adapt to this new international context. »

While, in these conditions, the objective of a deficit reduced to 4.4% in 2024 appears difficult to maintain, the minister responsible for public accounts limited himself to saying that the government would have “the opportunity to present [son] stability program, that is to say [ses] forecasts to the European Commission ».

“And we will naturally have to take into account the fact that, for the year 2023, the deficit will have been higher than expected and above all, basically, take into account the new economic context”did he declare.