Debt reduction: Bruno Le Maire hails the "resilience" of the economy

Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire hailed the "resilience" of the French economy on Tuesday

Debt reduction: Bruno Le Maire hails the "resilience" of the economy

Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire hailed the "resilience" of the French economy on Tuesday. Growth has indeed increased by 2.6% in 2022, reducing the level of debt and the public deficit in relation to gross domestic product (GDP).

"The resilience of our economy allows us to reduce the level of public debt to 111.6% of GDP and to meet our public finance target", with a deficit of 4.7%, the minister said, reaffirming his "determination to restore the public accounts.

France's public debt, which has increased massively with the health crisis and then inflation exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, has however increased in absolute value by 126.4 billion euros compared to 2021, reaching 2 950 billion euros, detailed the National Institute of Statistics (Insee).

While the public accounts look a little better in 2022, the public debt and deficit remain well above their pre-crisis level in 2019, due to the massive "whatever the cost" deployed by the government to support households and businesses. Public debt then represented 97.4% of GDP when the public deficit stood at 3.1%.

To restore public finances, the government is mainly counting on a faster increase in GDP than that of expenditure, which would be the subject of "several billion euros in savings" in the finance project (PLF) 2024.

It plans to present its multi-year trajectory for public finances around mid-April. At this stage, it is counting on a public deficit of 5% in 2023, which would gradually be brought below the European limit of 3% in 2027, while the debt would stabilize at 110.9% by this horizon.