Thanks to the recovery, the public deficit finally “close to 7%” in 2021, according to Dussopt

The latest economic figures confirm a stronger than expected recovery. France’s public deficit will finally be “close to 7%” of gross domestic product in 2021, declared the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts at Sunday newspaper. The government was still counting on 8.2% last year.

This improvement is due to “larger than expected tax revenues” linked to stronger growth than previously estimated and the recovery of the Social Security accounts “thanks to the recovery in employment and the receipt of contributions”, explained the minister. At the beginning of January, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire had already judged that the budget deficit for 2021 would be “significantly less than 8%” of GDP.

Return in 2027 to a deficit of 3% of GDP

Olivier Dussopt also recalls that according to the latest INSEE forecast, growth should reach 6.7% in 2021, against 6.25% according to the government forecast, which dates back to September. The Social Security deficit, “from 40 billion euros in 2020, would drop in 2021 to around 25 billion. We were expecting almost 33 billion”.

The deficit of the State would rise for its part to 171 billion euros, that is to say “nearly 34.5 billion less compared to our last forecasts”, still welcomed Olivier Dussopt. “All these movements confirm our deficit forecasts at 5% in 2022, then at 3% in 2027”, he added, specifying that the rise in interest rates does not call into question the objective of 5 % deficit for this year.