Le Figaro Actualités5 hours agoPolitics1 min readFrance

Why the public deficit could be the biggest sacrifice in the budgetary battle

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Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu affirmed that the public deficit would be limited to 5% of GDP in 2027, a target considered insufficient to remove France from its status as a poor budgetary student in Europe, while deputies voted against the savings planned in the finance committee.

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The government had set a public deficit target of 5% of GDP for 2027 after internal negotiations, in a context of French interest rates close to 5%, compared to less than 3.5% in February.

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It will be a public deficit of 5% of GDP in 2027, “no more”, swore the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, last week, during a solemn speech in Matignon. This target was set by the government, after long procrastination, just before the presentation of the budget to Parliament. It would correspond to a recovery in the deficit of 0.4 points compared to the forecast for this year. It would not really allow France to escape its role as a European budgetary dunce. But the executive is betting that it would be enough to reassure the financial markets which currently lend to France at a rate close to 5% (it was still below 3.5% last February).

Neither the mistrust of investors nor the firmness of the head of the executive have, it seems, managed to move the deputies. In the Finance Committee, in recent days, they have voted at will to eliminate savings in tax expenditures and add niches...

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The government will have to present new budgetary saving measures in the coming months to compensate for the vote of deputies.
Likely · Within months