Media: France faces growing budget deficit
France is now facing pressure due to a slower deficit reduction compared to other EU countries, and it will amount to 4.4 percent of GDP by 2024, gazeta.ru reports with reference to The Financial Times
It is informed that Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire promised to generate an additional 1bn Euros in savings over 16n Euros amid criticism of the government for a slow pace of reducing borrowing. This suggests that Paris plans ‘to go further’ and revise the social security system.
The government estimates that the cost of debt servicing will rise to about 75bn Euros per year in 2027, which will be the largest item of expenditure in the budget and will exceed spending on education or defence.
It is noted that any opportunity to reduce government spending and debt at a rapid pace will be taken into consideration. Bruno Le Maire said, “The experience of 2009 and 2010 and the financial crisis have shown that it would be a mistake to reduce public debt and spending too quickly. Then the countries found themselves simultaneously with ‘more debt and less growth’ – this is exactly what we want to avoid.”
Also, a number of politicians noted that the Finance Minister’s efforts to revise public spending did not meet expectations.
