Will France be able to borrow at rates close to zero for a long time?

THE QUESTION. The situation defies common sense. While fiscal deficits continue to deepen to reach 9% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 according to the latest official forecasts, the French Treasury is financed without the slightest problem on the financial markets. The needs of the State will however exceed 200 billion euros this year, three times more than in 2019. " We are making regular levies, for the moment we have no difficulty and the rates remain low ", noted this morning on France Info Bruno Le Maire.

Read also: Public debt or private bankruptcies: is this really the only alternative?

The Minister of Economy and Finance, however, avoided any triumphalism because nothing is acquired for eternity. The fate of France seems all the more enviable as Italy, whose financing needs are of the same order and even slightly lower (8.3% of its GDP), for its part, causes concern on the markets. With the fear of a new sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone on the horizon, as at the beginning of the decade

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