is France on the brink of the abyss with its debt of 3,200 billion?

The government presents France’s 2025 budget this Thursday, October 10. Its contours will be determined by the weight of the debt. We disentangle the true from the false.

France has a debt of 3.2 trillion euros

TRUE

Every year, for fifty years, France (especially the State and, to a lesser extent, Social Security and local authorities) has spent more than its resources. To get by, she borrows.

The State goes into debt by taking out bank loans

Faux

To get into debt, it issues debt securities (“bonds” in financial jargon). This could be, for example, a bond of €100,000, which he undertakes to repay in ten years, offering an annual interest of 3%. Enough to encourage an investor to buy it. “But the latter is not obliged to keep the obligation for ten years,…