Far from European nails. France’s public debt exceeded the symbolic threshold of 3,000 billion euros for the first time in the first quarter, rising to 112.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), against 111.8% at the end of December 2022, Insee said on Friday. The country’s public debt, which has increased massively since the health crisis, further increased by 63.4 billion euros to reach 3,013.4 billion in absolute value at the end of March, detailed the National Institute of the statistics.
The increase recorded over the first three months of the year is mainly due to the increase in the State debt (+48.6 billion euros), when that of the Social Security administrations increased by 17.4 billion euros. On the other hand, the debt of miscellaneous central government bodies fell by 2.8 billion euros and that of local public administrations remained almost stable.
The 1992 European Treaty of Maastricht set a public debt limit for States at 60% of GDP, a threshold that France exceeded at the end of 2002, never to go below it again since. But, since the health crisis, followed by the war in Ukraine, this rule, like that of a public deficit below 3% of GDP, has been suspended. They will apply again in 2024.
In April, the government presented a more ambitious trajectory for the restoration of the accounts of France, which plans to reduce the debt to 108.3% of GDP in 2027 and the deficit to 2.7%, in the nails of Europe, against 4.7% in 2022 and 4.9% expected this year.