It is a figure that makes you vertigo and which continues to feed the debates. French public debt has reached an unprecedented level according to the latest data published by INSEE. For many, These billions aligned in columns remain abstract and difficult to understand.
However, when we bring this burden back to a daily house, the extent of the problem appears with an frozen clarity. As noted by a report disseminated by TF1this sum can be compared to a weight that symbolically crushes each home. To the point of being qualified as “Immediate curse” by a former Prime Minister.
A colossal debt brought back to each French
At the end of June, France’s debt represented 115.6 % of the gross domestic product, or nearly 3,416.3 billion euros. To illustrate this astronomical amount, the 20h teams of TF1 have chosen to Calculate what this represents for each citizen. The result is edifying: 49,563 euros per French. In other words, for a household made up of four people, the debt is equivalent to nearly 200,000 euros.
This sum is not frozen. She keeps growing at an impressive speed. Between April and June only, it inflated by 70.9 billion euros. Which corresponds to approximately
5,000 euros additional every second. To take the measure of this evolution, it is enough to recall that in 2010, the weight of the debt for a family of four amounted to 98,000 euros. Last year, it already increased to 193,000 euros. So, by just fifteen, the charge has doubled, accentuating pressure on public finances and the future of the country.
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The debt that weighs on the French represents a colossal sum.
Why does debt explode?
If the French debt increases as much, it is largely because ofA persistent imbalance between revenue and state expenditure. The taxed taxes are not enough to cover the needs. Whether it is the financing of education, health or infrastructure. Economist Anne-Laure Delatte, research director at the CNRS, explains that this situation stems directly from a “Economic strategy implemented from 2017, which consisted in reducing taxes. Automatically, it reduced the recipes that have entered the boxes. ”
So, this political choice has reduced budgetary room for maneuver, while maintaining a high level of public spending. As the deficit worsens, Debt is used mechanically. This leaves the spectrum of painful measures to try to restore balance.
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Taxes are no longer enough to cover state expenditure, so debt increases.
Debt is likely to generate market pressure
Debt is soaring that economists, but also international rating agencies, is not only concerned. In September, Fitch lowered the sovereign note of France. Kit Yeung, director of sovereign ratings of the agency, then explains to TF1 what “The higher funding costs further increase the invoice”. In other words,
The more France borrows at high rates, the more the weight of the debt increases. This scenario opens the door to external pressures which can push France to drastically reduce its expenses. François Lenglet, an economic editorialist on TF1-LCI, does not exclude that the country be forced one day to measures comparable to those adopted in Greece during the debt crisis. At the time, Athens had dropped wages from 10 to 15 % and extended the duration of the career for an additional five years. Severe budget cuts that are still in all memories.
Faced with this situation qualified as ” curse “ By certain political leaders, the government is today seeking to identify a compromise route. The new Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has started a series of consultations to find a majority capable of supporting the next budgetary decisions. Rest that French debt continues to accumulate And that its symbolic weight, brought back to each cleaning, illustrates better than any other figure the extent of the stake. Nearly 200,000 euros for a family of four: this is the concrete translation of an economic problem that has become central. And which will still weigh on political debate for a long time.
