How Bruno Le Maire wants to tighten the screw on public spending

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Bruno Le Maire wants to “scrutinize” public spending to reduce it (photo: Bruno Le Maire, December 9, 2022)

POLITICS – Time to take out the magnifying glass and analyze each euro spent. This is the mission given by the Minister of the Economy Bruno the Mayor to reduce public spending with two objectives: “Bring the public deficit below 3% in 2027” and bring down the debt – now close to 3,000 billion euros – “from 2026”.

In The Sunday Journal this January 29, the Minister of the Economy delivers his strategy: he wants “spend better” and hear for that “go through all public spending with a fine-tooth comb: State, local authorities, social field”. A “expenditure review” will be initiated in the coming days with under the authority of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne with a view to the 2024 finance project, he specifies.

“Let us question each of our expenses. For example, we cannot want to decarbonize our economy and maintain favorable tax advantages for fossil fuels”, observes the Minister. Conversely, he judges essential “, given the international context, “to increase the budget of our armies. »

” Public spending is not the answer to everything”

“Public spending is not the answer to everything: it is an instrument that must be used with responsibility and moderation. It must focus on spending for the future, rather than on operations,” recommends Bruno Le Maire.

The latter has a perfect example: his bill on “green industry” which he intends to present by May 2023. “We want to be at the forefront of green industries. This presupposes massive investments, which we have already committed with France 2030, such as the hydrogen plan, the construction of six new nuclear reactors, electric battery factories, particularly in the North. But public money should not finance everything on its own: it is only the lever of private investment”warns the minister, who amounts to “60 to 70 billion additional euros per year” the cost of an energy transition “successful “.

INSEE will publish on Tuesday its first estimate of the growth of the French economy in 2022, which has held firm despite the energy crisis and galloping inflation but risks becoming disillusioned in 2023. The provisional figure of inflation for January will be unveiled on Tuesday as well. There is no doubt for economists that it will continue to accelerate, notably in the service sector, the pillar of the French economy, before calming down later in the year. INSEE anticipates a peak of around 7% at the start of the year, fueled in particular by the rise in regulated gas and electricity prices.

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