Paris (AFP) – France plans to raise 285 billion euros ($300 billion) on the financial markets in 2024, a new record amount after the 270 billion euros in 2023, the authorities announced this Wednesday on the occasion of the presentation of the budget of next year .
First change: September 27, 2023 – 7:38 p.m. Last change: September 27, 2023 – 7:37 p.m
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Liberal President Emmanuel Macron’s government’s draft budget aims to overcome the health and energy crises, fight debt and inflation and support the ecological transition.
“We must (…) align our public finances so that we face these three challenges,” said Bruno Le Maire, economics minister of the second largest economy in the European Union (EU), at a press conference.
France, whose debt is more than 3 trillion euros and whose deficit is above the EU framework, expects savings of about 16 billion euros next year.
This “remarkable effort at a time of inflation”, said the minister, will be mainly due to the suppression of extraordinary measures to reduce electricity prices.
Inflation in France was 4.9% year-on-year in August.
The government forecasts growth of 1.4% of GDP next year and a reduction in the deficit from 4.9% of GDP this year to 4.4% in 2024, a figure that the Supreme Council of Public Finance considered too “optimistic”.
However, Le Maire defended that his forecast was “responsible and sincere”. “We have to be ambitious,” he added.
On Monday, Macron presented his strategy to combat the climate crisis and announced, among other things, an increase in the budget item for the ecological transition by 7 billion euros to 47 billion euros.
As last year, the government expects an increase of 8,273 civil servants, particularly in the areas of security, justice and ecological transition (732 positions in 2024 compared to 45 in 2023).
Le Maire also announced a new tax on highway concessions and major airports that could raise around €600 million a year, arguing that the best climate investment is to “ensure that those who pollute the most make the biggest contribution.”
The budget proposal is likely to receive a harsh response in parliament, where Macron’s centrist party lost its absolute majority last year.
The government could again resort to a controversial resource – Article 49.3 of the constitution – to pass the proposal without a vote, as it did earlier this year to push forward unpopular pension reform, sparking violent protests.
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