Debt, “Black Spot” of public finances recognizes Bruno Le Maire

Debt remains the “black spot” of public finances recognized Wednesday the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire, promising to initiate a reduction in public spending, in the aftermath of criticism from the Court of Auditors on the action of the government.

“I readily admit that there is a black spot that remains, that of debt. (…) In the long term I think it would be unreasonable not to fight to stabilize public debt French and start its decline, “he said on Public Senate on Wednesday.

Last year, public debt climbed to 98.8% of GDP. And it should barely decline to 98.7% this year, according to government forecasts.

Bruno Le Maire said to reflect, with the Minister of Public Accounts Gerald Darmanin, “on a certain number of proposals on two or three public policies on which we could say, well, there we could make an effort and it will allow ultimately reduce French public debt. “

“It is not a question of cutting like that at random. It is just to take one, two or three elements of public policies and then to commit in the long term, as we did on subsidized contracts, as we have done on housing, as we did on chambers of commerce and industry, a gradual reduction in spending while preserving sectors that are vital “, like the hospital, detailed the minister.

Responding to criticism from the Court of Auditors who ruled Tuesday “almost stopped” the recovery of public finances, Bruno Le Maire defended conversely the work of the executive.

“We obviously do not share this assessment. We started to restore public finances in 2017,” he said, citing the reduction in the public deficit.

“We are out of the (European) excessive public deficit procedure, we are below the 3% deficit: 3.1% in 2019 because there was the transformation of the CICE into burden reduction which represented 0.8 points public deficit, 2.2% public deficit forecast for 2020 “, he listed.

In its annual report published Tuesday, the Court of Auditors criticized the executive for its “limited” ambition to redress the accounts of the state. “The recovery of public finances, already very gradual in recent years, is now almost at a standstill,” she said.