the economic challenges awaiting the future new government

It should first be noted that these challenges are directly or indirectly affected by the international context, which is an unavoidable fact today. The Minister of the Economy and Finance clearly underlined this on January 8, during his greetings to economic players. For Bruno Le Maire, the first economic risk today is geopolitical with the insistence of wars in the world and at the gates of Europe. The growing areas of tension are making national action more complex.

The issue most affected by this international context is purchasing power with inflation. Tensions on the prices of energy and raw materials, such as cereals, relating to the world market. Add to this one-off events, such as the growing insecurity in the traffic of goods in the Red Sea, which call into question international stability and affect world trade by increasing the cost of transport and therefore prices in stores at the end of the chain.

The Minister of the Economy also insists on the attractiveness of France which will be one of the challenges of the coming year, in particular with a law on financial attractiveness promised for the spring. On all subjects, it is about making France the most attractive nation for investments in Europe. And, of course, find the means to finance the three ongoing transitions: energy, digital and demographic, with the aging of the population.

The challenge of full employment

On a national level, the demographic and generational challenge requires upstream reflection on two axes. Firstly, the growing financing of the dependency of the elderly, which represents a cost for public finances. Then, the question of the work of seniors who are more and more numerous. Full employment at the end of Macron’s second five-year term in 2027 with an unemployment rate of 5% (instead of just over 7% today) will remain one of the big challenges for the next government team. All against a backdrop of drastic debt reduction. By 2025, we will have to find 12 billion euros in savings to maintain our international credibility. Good luck to the incoming government.