The situation and prospects of public finances

The Court of Auditors publishes its annual report on the state and prospects of public finances, including the public finance audit requested by the Prime Minister. Despite the efforts made, France’s public finances are far from being sanitised. The slowness of the reduction of the government deficit from 2012 to 2016 places our country today in a situation out of step with our European partners. The financial trajectory 2017-2020 presents many construction biases that affect its sincerity and it does not seem to be able to be respected. In 2017, without strong recovery measures, the general government deficit would exceed the target of 0.4 GDP point to 3.2 percentage points of GDP; in 2018 and beyond, an unprecedented savings effort would be needed to meet the path of the Stability Programme. The Court recommends reviewing the methods of programming and steering public finances. It also identifies the levers for action that can be mobilised to sustainably control the evolution of our public spending. This report is available on [the Court’s website] (https://www.ccomptes.fr/fr/publications/la-situation-et-les-perspectives-des-finances-publiques-0). The published files correspond to the data used in the preparation of the report.