With the various measures put in place in recent months to support the purchasing power of the French, we would have almost forgotten the ongoing deployment of France Relance. Launched to help the economy rebound in the face of the Covid-19 crisis, this 100 billion euro plan provides for a number of measures aimed at driving structural changes in the areas of ecology, competitiveness and cohesion.
Two years after its launch, the second evaluation of the plan was presented on Tuesday 20 December by the committee bringing together parliamentarians, social partners, associations representing local authorities, members of the Court of Auditors and administrations, as well as qualified personalities.
Their conclusion? “The short-term macroeconomic objective (returning to the pre-crisis level of gross domestic product by the summer of 2022, Ed) has been achieved”, underlined Cédric Audenis. In the third quarter, GDP was in fact 1.1% above its level at the end of 2019. This should be qualified, as the specific contribution of France Relance has not yet been demonstrated. And the return to the pre-crisis level does not mean that it has been completely erased: the growth missing during the Covid years remains to be caught up. Another positive point underlined by the committee, the speed of implementation of the plan, a mantra hammered by the executive during the launch of France Relance. At the end of August, the plan’s disbursement rate stood at 89%. The target of 100% by the end of 2022 could therefore be achieved.
Measures difficult to assess
This year, the committee extended its analysis to a dozen specific measures (against only five last year). As in the first evaluation, the committee underlined the complexity of this exercise for many reasons. “The hindsight is still insufficient for some measures, some are not fully deployed, such as support for decarbonized hydrogen, or investments are not completed, and some data are not yet available, for example for the reduction of taxes of production”, detailed Cédric Audenis, Deputy Commissioner General of France Strategy. The intertwining with the various government plans (such as France 2030) or the economic disturbances of recent months have added another layer of difficulties to the experts responsible for dissecting the effects of France Relance.
Despite these obstacles, the committee nevertheless launched into some preliminary conclusions on these measures, each of which contains its good and its bad points. The energy renovation of local authority buildings, for example, has led to substantial savings in terms of consumption, but the average masks very significant disparities between territories. Regarding MaPrimeRénov’, the committee welcomed the expected savings and the targeting of low-income households, but underlined its limits (few large-scale renovations and fragmented use in collective housing). Aid for the decarbonization of industry has meanwhile been rather well calibrated, but it must now “adapt to the new energy context”, underlines the committee.
The reduction in production taxes has come to relieve companies in a complicated macroeconomic context, but it reduces the room for maneuver of local authorities. For other measures, such as aid for clean vehicles or the “1 young person, 1 solution” plan, the impact remains much more vague for the moment. Finally, the connection between long-term partial activity (APLD) and the FNE-Training, which made it possible to use non-working hours to train employees to train employees, was used relatively little. An assessment still fragmented but which will be refined in the coming months thanks to work in progress. See you in 2023.