Blow hot and cold.
This is what Bruno Le Maire is working on.
Guest of LCI Thursday evening, the Minister of Economy and Finance drew the economic picture of France for the coming months and 2023. Faced with the possible discontent of the French on the "price to pay" of the consequences of the war in Ukraine, Bruno Le Maire puts the question of “
our freedoms, our fundamental values
” into the debate
: “
Can we let a country attack another country?
(...).
Values have a price, freedom has a price.
“A price that has a name: inflation, which has had a concrete impact on the portfolio of the French for a few months.
"
There is a slight ebb in inflation to 5.8%.
But today we are at high levels of inflation.
It will last several more months, and I do not anticipate a decline before the first months of 2023, perhaps mid-2023
,
”
says Bruno Le Maire.
Read alsoFor Bruno Le Maire, “the burden of inflation must be fairly distributed”
“
The French economy is resisting.
We will do better in 2022 (...).
We will do the 2.5% that we have planned.
Maybe a little better
”
,
also considers the boss of Bercy.
Before warning: "
On the other hand, for 2023, it will be more difficult because our growth depends on Russian gas, that Russian gas is in great danger of being cut off in the weeks or months to come, and that will have a impact on our growth, on German growth.
“
The year 2023, from the point of view of growth, will be a little more difficult but it is cyclical.
Structurally, the French economy is doing well
,” he rejoices.
In an interview with
Echoes
published this Thursday, Bruno Le Maire explained that
“if tomorrow Russia were to completely cut off its gas exports to Europe, this would result in a shock of at least 0.5 points on French growth.”
Thursday evening, the minister determines that such a cut could cost
“up to one point of GDP”.
“The difficult period is between now and next spring”
To better prepare the minds of the French for complicated months financially, the member of the government hammers it on LCI:
“The difficult period is between now and next spring.
This is where you have to accompany.
That's why we've taken all the protective measures now.
And then I hope that in the spring of 2023, inflation will have started to come down and that the French economy will have held up well.
To do this, the minister had announced in
Les Échos
his ambition to present new measures:
“In the coming weeks, I will make proposals to the President of the Republic and to the Prime Minister to reduce the time required to set up factories in France.
They are 17 months with us against 8 months in Germany.
We must tackle all the obstacles that unnecessarily slow down the procedures.”