With forecasts reduced to 1%, and tax revenues lower than expected, Bruno Le Maire announced on Sunday February 18 that he wanted to close the spending tap in order to respect the budgetary objectives of a public deficit of 4.4% of GDP for the current year.
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The government French has significantly revised downwards its growth estimate for 2024, from 1.4% to now 1%, Bruno Le Maire announced on Sunday, revealing savings “ immediate » of ten billion euros on state spending to meet budgetary ambitions.
This growth forecast “ takes into account the new geopolitical context », explained the Minister of the Economy on TF1evoking the war in Ukraine, the Middle East, the “ very marked economic slowdown in China ” And ” a recession in 2023 in Germany “.
As a result, and due to lower tax revenues than expected, the State “ will make an immediate effort of ten billion euros in savings ”, in order to respect its budgetary objectives. Five billion euros will have to be saved on the operating budget “ of all ministries », explained Bruno Le Maire, for example on energy expenditure or purchases.
The government will also “ reduce by almost a billion euros » public development aid and reduce the aid envelope by another billion energy renovation MaPrimeRénov’. “ An additional envelope of 1.6 billion was announced from 2023 to 2024 ” And ” there will still be an increase of 600 million, but we recover a billion », noted the minister.
A growth ” close to 0.9% », according to the Banque de France
A “ third round of savings », of one billion euros in total, will relate to “ state operators », according to Bruno Le Maire who mentioned in particular the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion, Business France, France Competences and the National Center for Space Studies.
With its new growth forecast, the executive is in line with other estimates: the Banque de France is counting on growth “ close to 0.9% », the International Monetary Fund forecasts 1% and the OECD 0.6%. Bercy still intends to reduce the public deficit to 4.4% of GDP in 2024, indicated Bruno Le Maire, compared to 4.9% anticipated for 2023. We also keep the possibility » of a “ amending budget in the summer depending on economic circumstances and the geopolitical situation », also noted the minister.
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When I say that we need to make savings, it is to keep control of our public finances. We earn less, there is less tax revenue. We spend less. I believe that this is common sense and that any household listening to us can understand that when we earn less, we spend less. So, we will immediately spend ten billion euros less on state spending in the coming days. I really want to clarify this point for our compatriots. It’s not social security that we’re going to touch. It is not the local communities that we are going to affect. It is the State which will make an immediate effort of ten billion euros in savings. All ministries will be involved and will have to spend less on their operations. It could be on energy, on real estate, on purchases (…). All ministries will contribute up to what they represent in the national budget, so that the effort is equitably and fairly distributed.
Bruno Le Maire was the guest of TF1 on Sunday February 18