The French will benefit for several more months from electricity prices limited by the public authorities. Invited on LCI this Friday morning, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, said he wanted to maintain the tariff shield on electricity until at least the beginning of 2025. The prices still remain too high today, “I give us two years” to gradually lift this device, he announced.
On the other hand, the tariff shield on gas will be extinguished this year, confirmed the boss of Bercy. Market prices having returned to an acceptable level, “there is no reason to maintain this shield”, he pleaded. It will therefore stop “as of this year”. The release of these devices will however be done gradually, and in a supervised manner, specified the minister, “so as not to worry our compatriots”. Bercy will convene “in the coming days” gas suppliers, including Engie, during a meeting, in order to ask them to simplify the bills of the French “so that consumers can find their way around”.
These announcements go hand in hand with the executive’s desire to tighten the screws on public accounts, in order to somehow reduce a public debt approaching 3000 billion euros. “It’s time to put the accounts back on track,” defended the Minister of the Economy, for whom “accelerated debt reduction is the freedom of the country”, making it possible to gradually redirect spending, from the burden of the debt to utilities. After the “yellow vests”, the Covid-19 and the inflationary crisis, “we must get out of the policy of the checkbook”, added the member of the government.
Since their introduction, tariff shields have weighed heavily on public finances: last September, Bercy estimated the bill at some 24 billion euros, including 10.5 billion euros for electricity. The balance sheet has since increased, the ministry speaking, this Thursday, by around 30 billion euros.
