While Emmanuel Macron barely touched, during the big discussion on Tuesday evening, the theme of public finances, the boss of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici made an effort, during his wishes to the press , to recall the urgency of this question. “Our debt level is reaching new heights and the advanced recovery trajectory appears fragile and unambitious,” he insisted.
This fall, Parliament adopted a public finance programming law for the period 2023-2027. In this text, Paris commits to reducing its deficit below 3% in 2027, later than the vast majority of our European partners.
And to note that, despite many promises, “the year 2023 was not, contrary to what one might have expected, synonymous with the end of “whatever it takes””. The deficit has in fact deteriorated compared to 2022, reaching 4.9 points of gross domestic product (GDP), while the debt stands at 112% of GDP.
Reversing the trend will require political voluntarism with sometimes difficult decisions to make. Especially since the government’s scenario for 2024 is based on a growth hypothesis of 1.4% when all economists are aiming for 0.8%. The 12 billion euros in savings planned for the next finance law could therefore prove insufficient to complete the budget, which forecasts a public deficit of 4.4%.
Despite the planned savings, “public spending would, in 2024, still be 1.5 points of GDP higher than its level before the health crisis, with a stable level of compulsory deductions,” recalled Pierre Moscovici. The first president of the Court of Auditors is also concerned about soaring interest rates, which are particularly penalizing for a state as indebted as France. “In 2027, the debt burden (84 billion euros) will be the first state budget: this has never happened in our financial history,” he said.
Pierre Moscovici also wanted to respond to the heated controversies over the postponement, from December 13 to January 4, of the Court’s report on immigration. LR personalities, in particular, had accused him of having deprived Parliament of essential information at the time of the law vote. “It is not by a desire to conceal information from Parliament and the general public that I was led to propose this decision, it is by a desire to defend the impartiality, the neutrality of the Court and its reputation” , concluded Pierre Moscovici.