The French debt “completely strangles us, it is asphyxiation”, estimates Pierre Moscovici for whom public finances are worthy of “a black box without transparency”

Faced with the multiple slippages in France’s budget, the president of the Court of Auditors Pierre Moscovici asked this Monday, December 16 FranceInfoto what “the High Council of Public Finances is systematically informed of growth, revenue and expenditure forecasts”established by the government.

A deficit that exploded in 2024

“And let him give an opinion, let him go a little further than what he does today: he stamps, he validates”continued the senior state official. Advice which would, according to him, avoid forecast errors such as those made by the executive in 2024 for the year 2025. Because, initially, the public deficit forecasts for 2024 were estimated at 4.4%. of GDP, compared to 6.1% of GDP at the start of October 2024, of which the former Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire recognized “responsible” during his hearing on December 12.

“No good public policy” sans “good public finances”

“If we had listened to the warnings from the Court of Auditors and the High Council of Public Finances, we would have avoided a certain number of things”he added, including “the forecast errors of the last two years: they must not be repeated”he stressed. “What I have learned in 40 years of public life is that we cannot make good public policy if we do not have good public finances”argued the president of the high French institution. “CHow do you want, tomorrow, to finance ecology, digital technology, competitiveness, the attractiveness of the country which are in difficulty, if each year you repay 60 billion, then 70 billion then 100 billion per year?”

This new method would make it possible to enter the “comply or explain”as in England: this would force politics to say to the administration “I do not agree with your figures” and there, two options would be available to them: “either she takes what the High Council gives her, or she explains why she doesn’t take it”argued Pierre Moscovici. “The High Council is a group of economists, if we give them a little more time, more resources and a little more skills, they will be able to do it”.

“Asphyxiation” for French democracy

“This French debt is totally strangling us”he added, calling it asphyxiation for the country. “We need to find a direction again”he insisted, and “it starts with politics”, believing that public finances are similar to a “black box without any transparency”et “harmful” for democracy.

A more stable France with Bayrou?

“What makes economic agents hesitate, what makes the financial markets tremble, what worries the European Commission is to say that France is difficult to govern”. And the appointment of François Bayrou as Prime Minister is, for him, “good news” for public finances: “he is a conscious man of good will”, he replied when asked about it.