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The public deficit for 2025 will be “the fruit of political discussions”, according to the government
The government indicated on Friday that France’s public deficit target for 2025 would be “the fruit of discussions” with the political forces in Parliament, before Prime Minister François Bayrou’s general policy speech on January 14. “The deficit will be the result of the consultations and the path that will be found during the consultations in Bercy and also for the PLFSS (Social Security financing bill, Editor’s note). So, we will first settle on this dialogue”, declared the. government spokesperson Sophie Primas in her press report of the first Council of Ministers of the Bayrou government. She did not confirm information from the newspaper Le Monde, according to which the government is targeting a public deficit of 5.4% of GDP this year, more than the 5% ambitioned by the previous government, after an expected slippage to 6.1 % in 2024. It could be between 5.4 or 5.1, 4.9, 4.8 (as a percentage of GDP, Editor’s note), we will see the result of these negotiations and we will see where the path is and what is bearable for the deficit,” she stressed. With a view to involving them in the preparation of the 2025 budget, of which France is currently deprived due to the censorship of Michel Barnier’s government on December 4, the Ministers of the Economy, Eric Lombard, and of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, have planned to consult all the political forces represented in Parliament. “First contacts” began on December 30, but discussions will formally begin next week, according to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, which has not communicated a precise timetable. These meetings, scheduled until the day of the general policy declaration, will be the subject of conclusions which will translate “into government proposals amending the 2025 budget”. Regarding the progress of the examination of the draft budget, the government spokesperson indicated that she did not yet have an exact timetable to (…) give”, but that “the main orientations will probably be in the general policy declaration”. In December, François Bayrou said he hoped for adoption of the budget “in mid-February”, without however being “sure of getting there”. He had specified that he would start from “the copy which was voted on” in Parliament before censorship. In an interview with the Tribune Dimanche, the Minister of the Economy, Eric Lombard, had specified that the deficit would be included in the text budget at “a little above 5%” of GDP “in order to protect growth”. Bercy has also not confirmed that the growth forecast would be lowered from 1.1% to 0.8% for 2025, as stated by the newspaper L’Opinion. In the absence of a budget, tax measures which had been proposed by the previous government cannot be renewed as such, underlined Le Monde sur internet, in particular the surtax on the profits of large companies, supposed to bring in 8 billion euros in 2025. Concerning the exceptional contribution on high incomes, which was to generate 2 billion, “it cannot be kept as is”, declared Eric Lombard to Le Monde. “Perhaps we will be able to find another measure of solidarity which would achieve approximately the same effect.” Since January 1, a “special law” authorizes ministries to incur expenditure within the limit of the appropriations opened in 2024, of which only a quarter has been released. mpa-are-fff/jbo/abx
