He wants to reduce public spending at all costs. In a newspaper interview The world, Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of Economy and Finance, announces that beyond the 10 billion euros in savings – “not a swipe but an emergency brake” – other steps will take place . The public deficit will be “significantly above 4.9%” in 2023, the objective set by the government, due to lower tax revenues, he warned.
These cuts, which target in particular the ecological transition, work or education, should allow the government to respect its objective of reducing the public deficit to 4.4% of gross domestic product in 2024, all under the watchful eye of the agencies. rating.
“At some point, we simply have to cool the machine, because growth is suffering the consequences of the new geopolitical environment and tax revenues are decreasing. When we earn less, we spend less,” according to Bruno Le Maire.
A possible amending finance bill in the summer
He repeated that this reduction in spending was only a first step, before a possible “amended finance bill in the summer, if necessary”, then the need to find at least 12 billion euros of additional savings in 2025. The government had to lower its growth forecast to 1% for 2024, compared to 1.4% in the initial budget – a figure significantly higher than the consensus of economic forecasters and which the High Council of Public Finances had deemed “high ” upon its unveiling in September.
The savings plan was enacted by decree rather than via a draft amending finance law (PLFR), which would have obliged the government to submit these ten billion cuts to Parliament for approval, a perilous exercise for time when the presidential camp only has a relative majority in the National Assembly.
In the longer term, Bruno Le Maire recalls on Wednesday the objective of “a return to the deficit below 3%” in 2027, and says he is aiming for “a balanced budget in 2032”, which “we do not have not known since 1974”. Bruno Le Maire gives this interview to World while he must submit, alongside the Minister for Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave, to questions from deputies and senators in the afternoon. They will speak at 3:00 p.m. before the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, then at 5:00 p.m. before that of the Senate.
Cerfa forms “permanently deleted
Bruno Le Maire also announced on Wednesday that he wanted to simplify and “halve” the commercial code as part of the simplification shock promised by the government, which will also see the Cerfa forms “permanently deleted”. The minister believes that “complexity has a dizzying cost in terms of jobs and hours worked. We must reduce the mental burden that weighs on entrepreneurs.”
“We are going to eliminate all Cerfa by 2030”, he declares again about these administrative forms, indicating that by “by 2026”, 80% of them “will be pre-filled by the administration. Then we will delete them permanently.”