The government must finally get “seriously” on public spending, according to the governor of the Bank of France. Francois Villeroy de Galhou raised the government’s stripes during a speech at Paris Dauphin University on Thursday. “For fifteen years now, our country and its successive governments have not followed through on their multi-year commitments to recover public accounts,” he lamented.
The deterioration of the deficit in 2023, which reached 5.5% of GDP instead of the 4.9% initially planned by the government, “of course does not mean the bankruptcy of France”, he tried to assure, but he calls for “necessary”. .
“Before Deciding on Taxes”
The governor insisted that we must finally “get serious” about public spending. And this, “before taking any potentially necessary decisions on taxes,” he said, referring to recent proposals to tax companies’ “superprofits” or carry out targeted tax increases.
Despite the slippage in 2023, the government maintained its objective of reducing the public deficit below 3% of GDP in 2027 as promised to its European partners. To achieve this, he wants to turn the budgetary screw. Savings of 10 billion euros have already been made for 2024 and 20 billion cuts have been announced for 2025. But according to Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, “additional savings” will be necessary.
“Efforts of Prioritization and Efficiency”
The governor elaborated, “It is not time to order a general reduction in costs and expenses, but to achieve this general stability in volume.” “This requires priority and efficiency, a fair and shared effort by all: the state, but also local authorities and social services”.
Parliamentarians from the majority and the opposition were invited to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Thursday to propose ways to save money. A second meeting has been announced, this time in Bercy on April 9, with associations of local elected officials, for possible savings in local authorities.
