The new government is working on the 2025 budget. The finance bill prepared by the Barnier government was left pending during the parliamentary shuttle by the motion of censure of December 4. In an interview with La Tribune SundayEric Lombard, the new Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, believes “that there may be discussions on tax increases, which should be very limited”.
The deficit would be included in the text at “a little above 5%” of GDP, “in order to protect growth”. Before concessions to the opposition which did not save him from censure, the former Prime Minister Michel Barnier announced the intention of reducing the public deficit to 5% of GDP next year.
Eric Lombard hopes for “compromises” with the parties
Eric Lombard also dismisses concerns about a possible increase in the number of people subject to income tax in 2025, because the “special law” which will come into force on January 1 to ensure the strict functioning of the State does not does not allow the traditional indexation of the scale of this tax to inflation. “We will have a budget which will include an indexation of the scale. The French who do not pay income tax today will not pay any tomorrow,” assures the minister, who until recently was director general of the Fund deposits and consignments (CDC).
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The Minister of Economy and Finance also announces that he wants to invite all parties to dialogue at Bercy in the coming days, hoping that “compromises” will be found to promote the adoption of a budget. “At the request of the Prime Minister, I will call on the political parties represented in the National Assembly and the Senate, as well as the parliamentary groups, to come and dialogue at the ministry with Amélie de Montchalin, the Minister of Public Accounts, and myself “, says Eric Lombard.
