The recovery of public accounts promises to be more difficult than expected. According to an anonymous source from the Ministry of the Economy cited by AFP on Monday February 19, the French public deficit for 2023, forecast at 4.9% of GDP, “will probably be difficult to maintain”. And this, despite the government’s promise to fall below 5% again over this period. Last year, the national statistics institute Insee revealed the official results concerning the public deficit of 2022 in March.
If the budgetary balance for the year 2022 had indeed achieved this objective for the first time since 2019 – the year preceding the Covid-19 crisis -, with a deficit estimated at 4.7% of GDP, the government’s forecast this time seems questioned. However, the government seemed confident at the end of October. While the 2023 finance bill provided for a deficit of 5% of GDP, former government spokesperson Olivier Véran indicated that this rate would be a little lower: this famous 4.9%. .
However, according to the anonymous source at Bercy, “the reality is that our revenues were much less dynamic than expected at the end of the year” 2023. An observation which echoes a declaration by the Minister of the Economy, Bruno The Mayor, again this Monday: “Less revenue, that should lead us to less spending”. Indeed, the minister announced on Sunday a plan of 10 billion euros in savings during the year 2024, in order to maintain the course already planned for this year: a “target of 4.4% deficit”, Bruno Le Maire confirmed on Monday.
The government plans in particular to reduce the operating budget “of all ministries”, to save “nearly a billion euros” on development aid and to reduce the budget envelope by another billion. MaPrimeRénov’ energy renovation assistance.