Public finances already in the red before the health crisis

It is a sad reality. With a public deficit which should reach at least 9% of GDP in 2020, France is today facing a recession of unprecedented violence, without a financial mattress. Even before the coronavirus crisis hit the world economy, France was still one of the worst students in the euro area in terms of fiscal consolidation.

Read also: Coronavirus: will there really be a "general impoverishment" of the French?

The government may say that the situation has improved since coming to power in 2017, the numbers are not good. In 2019, France recorded a public deficit of 3% of GDP. This is the highest level of the 19 euro area countries, whose deficit stood at only 0.6% on average. As for Germany, it posted a surplus (1.4% of the GDP) just like "10 other countries of the zone" , underlines François Ecalle, founder of the site Fipeco (site of information on public finances) and former magistrate of the Court of Auditors.

And even by subtracting the temporary and extraordinary cost

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