Bercy services envisage a slippage in the public deficit to 5.6% of GDP in 2023, 5.7% in 2024 and 5.9% in 2025, according to figures presented by the Budget rapporteur in the Senate, Jean-François Husson , who led a control mission to the Ministry of the Economy on Thursday. Asked about these figures, Olivia Grégoire, Minister Delegate in charge of Business, Tourism and Consumption, believes that they can be explained in particular by “the model of our protective State”.
“The welfare state has greatly supported and protected the French until the year 2023. Imagine 45 billion euros have been deployed for the tariff shield to pay 150 to 200 euros increase on the electricity bills of the French . This is one of the reasons why we have to look at things calmly,” she continues.
She also recalls the geopolitical context which may have had its influence on French finance: “Who could have predicted that we would be at 4% interest rates with the central bank this year? That the war in Ukraine would get bogged down? Who could predict what happened in the Middle East? There were a lot of shocks.”
Questioning the French model
Olivia Grégoire also responded to the government’s detractors: “The National Rally has never proposed savings options. LR has proposed more than 100 billion in spending. It’s so easy to go on stage and play tap dances to cry and criticize the government when within Parliament we have never voted or proposed avenues for savings.
If she praises the French social model, the minister still defends its restructuring: “We must question the reality of our social model. We have social protection in certain areas, unemployment insurance in particular, but also health insurance which is expensive. We have in the operating costs costs in the administration which can be useless and redundant”, she concludes