The reactions to the Covid and Ukraine crises have left deep scars on our public finances. Between 2020 and 2024, €250 billion of exceptional support spending increased debt by around €300 billion, including initial revenue losses.
But we must also understand why our accounts, freed from the burden of this exceptional expenditure, have not now returned to the level of deficit (-2.5% of GDP) that they had reached in 2018 and 2019, even though compulsory levies have not decreased. We must understand why, contrary to the official discourse, deficits, excluding exceptional crisis expenditure, are increasing, from 72 billion euros in 2022 to 118 billion euros in 2024, making France the red lantern of Europe in terms of deficits (-4.4% of GDP), 2 points of GDP above the average of our partners, which, They have been deleveraging since 2021.
The government is careful not to give the answers, protected...
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