Artus – The triple problem ahead for France’s public finances

2023-05-06 09:00:00

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CHRONIC. Deficit, inflation, excess savings… In many respects, the control of French public finances promises to be tricky in the near future.

By Patrick Artus

Published on 05/06/2023 at 09:00

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LFrance’s total public deficit in 2022 was slightly lower than expected (4.7% of GDP against 4.9% of GDP) thanks to higher tax revenues, especially taxes on corporate profits, expectations to. But the future prospect of this deficit is cause for concern, and constitutes the first problem for France’s public finances.

In fact, it is necessary to distinguish, within the public deficit, the interest paid on the public debt from the rest of the budget deficit, which is called the primary deficit, excluding interest on the public debt. Interest on the public debt reached 2.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022 and the primary public deficit 2.5% of GDP.

Towards a “dangerous” public deficit

Gradually, due to…