France forecasts a public deficit above 5% of GDP in 2024 as well

The government unveils a new financial trajectory on Wednesday. It will be, according to information from franceinfo, much worse than expected, since this year, the deficit will remain, as in 2023, above 5% of GDP.

France forecasts a public deficit above 5% of GDP in 2024, franceinfo learned on Tuesday April 10, from ministerial sources, confirming information from Echoes, while the Ministry of the Economy must present during the day the new budgetary objectives by the end of the five-year term. The government originally forecast a deficit of 4.4%.

In the new annual stability program, a document that the government will send to Brussels and which it will present to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday morning, it will be included, according to information from franceinfo, 5.1 or 5.2%.

This budgetary revision comes when just a few weeks ago, the executive had already revised its copy for the 2023 deficit. Expected at 4.9%, it finally reached 5.5%, or 15.8 billion dinars. euros more. This budgetary slippage is notably due to the drop in tax revenues collected last year. This new budgetary deterioration therefore weakens the presidential majority a few weeks before the European elections.

Where to find money?

Faced with this higher than expected deficit, the government must find more money. On the revenue side, it is therefore betting on growth and banking on work and a contained unemployment rate. On the spending side, the executive has already started to cut budgets, but promises to tighten the screw even more. While the unions noted overnight the failure of negotiations on the employment of seniors, the government has all the more freedom for its reform. It therefore aims to save money on communities and social spending. We must expect, for example, less well-reimbursed health care or the establishment of waiting days.

Last week, on LCP, the general budget rapporteur at the National Assembly Jean-René Cazeneuve judged “very likely that the objective of 4.4% in 2024 will no longer be the planned objective at all” in the new stability program.

To urgently restore the situation, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire had already announced in February ten billion euros in savings on the state budget this year. This is the maximum amount that can be cut by decree, without having to go through a amending finance law in Parliament.