Budget 2025: “There will be no new tax increase” assures the new Minister of the Economy, but the Livret A rate will drop

The new Minister of the Economy Eric Lombard was invited to the microphone of France Inter this Monday morning. He indicated the orientations of the draft budget on which the government is working, providing for an effort of around 50 billion euros and no longer 60 billion like the previous budget of the Barnier government. “We are around 50 billion in savings”declared Eric Lombard, specifying that he had “softened the subject“. “It will essentially be savings, there will be no new tax increases,” he clarified.

He recalled wanting to be part of the dialogue and this Monday he is receiving the different political groups in Bercy. He explains that he wants “reach an agreement or at least, a non-censorship agreement so that as soon as possible, our country has a budget”. Prime Minister François Bayrou had indicated that he hoped for a budget “mid-February”.

And the Minister of the Economy assures that, for him, “I am for tax justice, verifying that everyone pays their fair share of tax”. For the minister, there are “possible convergences” with the PS, the PCF and the Ecologists. His budget will be closer “to the left than to the RN”, he also said.

Eric Lombard confided that he was targeting a public deficit between 5% and 5.5% of GDP in 2025. The Minister of the Economy also indicated that the rate of the Livret A, which is still the preferred investment of the French, will fall. Currently at 3%, it should increase to 2.5% on February 1, but it is the governor of the Bank of France who will decide.