State deficit in 2024 is slightly less than feared

So here is the “Week of truth”according to the formula launched by François Bayrou, Monday, February 3, at the gallery of the National Assembly. The week when the draft budget for 2025 should finally be validated on Wednesday by Parliament. That also of the truth about the 2024 accounts. A dark period for France’s finances, but a little less than some feared it, as shown by the first figures published Tuesday, February 4 by Bercy.

The State ended the year on a deficit of 156.3 billion euros. It is 17 billion euros, or 10 %, less than in 2023. When the budget had been voted by the Parliament, at the end of 2023, the government hoped to absorb this deficit even more. But, over the months, the accounts have slipped a little. However, the movement proved to be less violent than what was feared two months ago, in the end of management law promulgated in early December 2024.

This drift is added to those expected by local communities and social security, which are not yet known in detail. In total, the public deficit should, according to the government, be spent in one year from 5.5 % to around 6 % of the gross domestic product, the highest rate in the whole euro zone. For the only perimeter of the State, the 2024 assessment is indicative of the tricolor difficulties, of the heaviness with which the Faterbot France evolves, even in the event of a critical situation.

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