No, there will not be a tax increase despite a larger than expected public deficit. President Emmanuel Macron assured this Thursday that he would “close the hypothesis” of an increase in taxes, defending his economic strategy which “produces results”. “We must respond to this economic shock,” said the Head of State, during a trip to the town of Bergerac in Dordogne.
“The line is simple and has been reaffirmed: we stay the course (full employment, reindustrialization, rearmament of our public services) and we immediately close the hypothesis of saying that we are going to resolve this economic shock with more taxes , French disease. It would take away confidence. We maintain the trust of households, businesses, and our partners,” he added.
Towards a deficit of 5.1% of GDP
France indicated on Wednesday that it now anticipates a public deficit of 5.1% of GDP for 2024, which will require finding another 10 billion euros this year, for a return to 2.9% of GDP in 2027. The high figure of the 2024 deficit, initially forecast at 4.4%, is the consequence of the strong slippage recorded in 2023, where it reached 5.5% of GDP instead of the 4.9% forecast, due to revenues much lower than hoped for, indicated the Ministry of the Economy and Finance.
In front of Bruno Le Maire, with whom he denied having any “disagreement”, Emmanuel Macron insisted that his economic strategy was not “bad”, but that on the contrary it produced “results”.
“We are the most attractive in Europe, we have some of the best growth in the euro zone, we create jobs and we are getting closer to others. (…) And so all that is good, we must keep it,” he insisted again.