Deficit: the Senate comes to Bercy for an “on-the-spot” control

An unexpected guest is currently at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The general rapporteur of the Senate Finance Committee, Jean-François Husson, is in Bercy this Thursday to carry out a check of official information on the 2023 public deficit, which should be much higher than the 4.9% initially forecast. by the government. “This inspection on documents and on site (...) aims to obtain communication of all the notes and documents produced by the Bercy services and explaining this deterioration and to obtain answers to the numerous questions it raises,” explains a press release from the Senate Finance Committee.

The Luxembourg Palace embarked on this control after revelations in the press about “an unprecedented deterioration, since it would be forecast at 5.6% of GDP instead of the expected 4.9%”. “How long has this degradation been known about? Exactly how big is it? What are the factors (lower revenue, increased spending)? What impact on the recovery trajectory (...) which would seem at first glance to be completely called into question?”, lists the press release.

“The obvious lack of information available to Parliament once again marks the contempt to which it is subject on the part of the government,” estimates the Senate Finance Committee, which indicates that it has embarked on this control after revelations in the press on “an unprecedented deterioration” of the deficit. The final figure for the 2023 deficit will not be published until Tuesday by INSEE. But in recent days, pressure has been mounting on the government, which had already recognized at the beginning of March, through the voice of the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, that the public deficit would be “significantly” above the objective of 4, 9% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023.

Since Wednesday evening, the daily Les Echos has spoken of 5.6%, Le Figaro of 5.5% with a margin of error of 0.3 points. Figures that the Minister for Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave refused to confirm on Thursday, who however indicated on franceinfo that the figure would be “greater than 5%” of GDP, against a backdrop of economic “slowdown” in China, war in Ukraine and difficulties of "partners" like Germany.

“The Senate must intervene to understand how it was possible to arrive at a level of deficit which, if confirmed at 5.6%, would never have been reached under the Fifth Republic outside of recession and crisis,” “how (the government) could have made a mistake of around 20 billion euros on its budgetary trajectory,” explains the institution in its press release. Jean-François Husson will give a press conference about control this Thursday at 5:00 p.m., in the Senate.

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