Deficit: the slippage is “significant”, it is “very, very rare”, warns the president of the Court of Auditors

An uncontrolled skid? After the announcement of the public deficit, estimated at 5.5% of GDP in 2023 compared to 4.9% initially expected by the government, the first president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici spoke to him of a “significant” slippage and “very, very rare”. “I am no longer surprised, we have been calculating this figure for a few days, but it is still a slippage in execution which is significant, not entirely unprecedented but very, very rare,” he said. on France Inter. “The 4.9% was already not a performance, since the 2022 deficit was at 4.8%,” explained the former Minister of the Economy and Finance.

Compared to the 2022 deficit, with the forecast of 4.9% for 2023, “we already had a blank year, and here we have a worse year” with 5.5%, lamented Pierre Moscovici, judging that this slippage placed France in an “unfortunate situation”. The president of the control body, however, judged that there had been no "insincerity" in the government's deficit forecasts, "in the sense that there is no desire to deceive" from the from the executive. But “the government was optimistic. For 2023, we did not see the fact coming that after a while revenues would end up flattening out,” added Pierre Moscovici.

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“We are in a position that forces us to review our trajectory and tell the truth to the French about our public spending,” demanded the first president of the Court of Auditors. While the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire reaffirmed on Tuesday his intention to bring the deficit below the European objective of 3% by 2027, Pierre Moscovici judged this objective “attainable, but strained”.