The French public deficit will widen again this year to reach 9.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP), declared the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, guest of the program "Les 4 Vérités" on France 2, this Monday morning.
Unheard of for the French economy, a consequence of new spending incurred to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
This record deficit “is linked to three things: the first is that we are postponing a certain number of expenses from 2020 to 2021 (…) because we continue to help a certain number of sectors and companies, even if gradually we are going to remove this aid, and thirdly because there is part of the recovery plan that is disbursed ”, detailed Bruno Le Maire.
So far, the forecast was 9%.
"It's money to invest and revive the economy," he added.
"We expect a 9.4% public deficit for 2021"
💬 @BrunoLeMaire, Minister of the Economy and Finance
▶ # les4V pic.twitter.com/WsCu95RkjO
- Caroline Roux (@Caroline_Roux) May 31, 2021
The public deficit, which also includes the deficit of the State budget, that of Social Security and local communities, was initially forecast at 8.5% of GDP for 2021 but had already been revised upwards to 9 %, at the beginning of April.
In euros, it should reach 220 billion, nearly 47 billion more than what had been budgeted in the initial finance law, the Minister of Public Accounts, Olivier Dussopt, told Agence France Presse on Sunday.
"Prolongation of the effort"
This deficit which will be more consequent than that of 2020 is "the prolongation of the effort which we made to protect our economy and at the same time the increase of this economic recovery which we want to have this 5% of growth figure which remains our objective ”, indicated the Minister of the Economy.
On Wednesday, the government is due to present an amending finance bill (PLFR) comprising more than 15 billion euros in additional emergency measures, which will be used in particular to finance partial activity and targeted aid for companies in difficulty.
New support measures for companies in very great difficulty or tax relief for companies must also be presented on this occasion.
This Monday, on Public Senate, Olivier Dussopt indicated that the public debt will swell to 117.2% this year, against 115.1% last year.
Regarding the government's growth objectives for next year, Bruno Le Maire remains optimistic. "I am convinced that we will achieve 5% growth in 2021 and that we will find at the beginning of 2022 the same level of economic development that we had before the crisis", he declared on France 2. The crisis economic due to the Covid-19 pandemic will have been erased according to him "in a little over two years".
