The Governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, estimated on Thursday that the slippage of the deficit in 2023 required taking
“finally serious attention to
public spending”, after
“fifteen years”
without
“governments holding (...) their commitments
. For fifteen years, our country and its successive governments have not kept their multi-year commitments to redress
“public accounts”
, regretted the governor during a speech at Paris Dauphine University.
The deterioration of the deficit in 2023, which reached 5.5% of GDP instead of the 4.9% initially planned by the government,
“does of course not mean the bankruptcy of France”
, he sought to reassure , but it calls for an imperative.
“We must finally take serious care of public spending
,” insisted François Villeroy de Galhau. And this,
“before taking any potentially necessary decisions on taxes
,” he said, in reference to recent proposals aimed at taxing companies’
“superprofits”
or carrying out targeted tax increases.
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“Stabilization in volume”
Despite the slippage in 2023, the government maintained its objective of reducing the public deficit below 3% of GDP in 2027, as promised to its European partners. To achieve this, he intends to make a new turn of the budgetary screw. Ten billion euros in savings have already been made for 2024, and 20 billion cuts are announced for 2025. But additional savings “will be necessary, according to the Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire.
“It is high time, not to decree austerity and a general reduction in spending, but to achieve this general stabilization in volume
,” explained François Villeroy de Galhau.
“This requires an effort of prioritization and efficiency, fair and shared by all: State, but also local authorities and social benefits”
. Parliamentarians from the majority and the opposition were invited to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance on Thursday to propose ways to save money. A second meeting in Bercy has been announced for April 9, this time to look, with associations of local elected officials, for potential savings within local authorities.