© Portal. France aims to grow by 1.4% in 2024 and will prioritize reducing the deficit and protecting against inflation
Paris, September 27 (.). – France plans to grow by 1.4% in 2024 and reduce its public deficit by four tenths to 4.4% of its GDP, with a budget that prioritizes, but without neglecting, debt reduction and consolidation of public finances of protective measures against inflation.
“In a context in which many European countries are in recession, French growth is resisting: 1% in 2023, 1.4% expected in 2024,” celebrated French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire in an appearance following the presentation of the draft budget for next year in the Council of Ministers.
It is a text that, according to Le Maire, “protects against inflation, allows the rehabilitation of public finances through real and credible austerity measures and also allows us to invest in the future of the French nation”.
The budget’s main lines foresee a saving of 16 billion euros for next year, of which 10,000 euros will come from the withdrawal of the “shield” measures to cushion the rise in energy prices.
“The price is returning to normal, so it is legitimate to withdraw this exceptional device,” argued Le Maire, who defended that the return to a 3% deficit was both an “imperative necessity” and a “political decision” by the executive .
Other structural measures that aim to achieve this goal in the 2027 time horizon also fit into this framework, such as the controversial pension reform passed this year or the unemployment reform. With all this, France could keep its debt level at 108.1% of its GDP this year, according to the executive’s plans. “It’s not an austerity budget”
Despite this focus on rehabilitating public finances, Le Maire stressed that protecting French budgets from the effects of high inflation remains a major “challenge” for public policy, as such strong price increases have not been seen since the 1970s. continues to be a priority.
This leads to an indexation of pensions and social benefits to the inflation rate and an adjustment of income tax rates.
This is a payout of 25 billion euros and, as the minister emphasized, they are better options than the implementation of “social assistance”.
“So it is not an authority budget,” noted Thomas Cazenave, State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, in the same press appearance.
Cazenave stressed that the new budget “re-equips” public services with “significant investments” in priority sectors such as education, police and justice, where just over 8,000 additional jobs would be created.
The text also proposes 10 billion euros in investments for the ecological transition and “green taxation” that favors decarbonization.
It will attack niches related to fossil fuels such as highways or airports, but taxing airline tickets has been definitively ruled out.
Along with the Finance Law 2024, the social security budget for next year was also presented.
Last year, both projects were approved without parliamentary approval because Macronism, which does not have an absolute majority in the National Assembly (lower house), did not receive enough support to ensure success in the vote on the texts.
The option chosen by the executive was to apply a constitutional mechanism, Article 49.3, which allows the adoption of laws without parliamentary support, but opens the possibility of being subject to motions of no confidence.
Despite criticism of this strategy, which was also used when the controversial pension reform was passed last March, the government survived the subsequent motions of no confidence, largely thanks to the support of the Republicans, the classic conservative party.
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