The time of new measures to reduce costs will soon strike in France. The State must indeed save 100 billion euros by 2013 to reduce its deficit and meet European standards.
Claude Gueant, advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy, says the Financial Times on Monday that further savings measures are in preparation. They should be announced in the fall. It says in part: "France has pledged to reduce its deficit to 3% by 2013. We are determined to achieve this goal. "
Forecast question
For now, the government relies on its growth forecasts to find half the sum. But estimates of France are considered optimistic. The European Commission and the International Monetary Fund have both criticized the government's optimism.The economy minister, Christine Lagarde, has itself acknowledged Sunday at the Grand Jury RTL-LCI-Le Figaro, saying that the forecast 2.5% growth next year was "bold" .
Lower costs
The remaining 50 billion euros will come from the decline in public spending and tax increases. How the State plan to do it? A belief in "Les Echos", the government intends to confirm its target of 100,000 new layoffs of civil servants between 2011 and 2013, after the 100,000 already achieved in recent years. Moreover, the government plans to freeze spending between 2011 and 2013 to maintain transfers to local governments and increase only slightly the health expenditure.The state should also remove the tax loopholes to recover 5 billion euros per year and create a new tax on the wealthiest to raise 3.7 billion euros. Finally, the adjustment of tax evaders will recover, as reported by the Budget Minister Francois Baroin to France Info radio this weekend, "over 1 billion just on the folder HSBC.
The Financial Times points out that these measures should not be sufficient to reach 100 billion euros in savings by 2013. If Claude Gueant has not revealed the content of the proposed measures, economists believe that the state could proceed with a wage freeze for civil servants, their salaries account for nearly one third of public spending.