Public procurement barometer 2020 AdCF / Territory Bank

With a total volume of € 71 billion in 2020, public procurement continues to play an important role in GDP (around 3%), but is at its lowest level for the past 10 years.

The barometer clearly shows that the health crisis and its economic effects have played an amplifying role in an electoral renewal schedule that is not conducive to strong purchasing dynamics.. Several factors are at work: the effects of Covid 19 (absences, barrier measures), the postponement of local elections which froze investment decisions, strict confinement in the first semester putting many public services on hold and disrupting the economic activity...

The decline in 2020 is all the stronger as the year 2019 was high. The comparison of the purchasing volume of 2020 with the purchasing volume of the average of the last electoral cycle, makes it possible to put it into perspective by reducing it from -18% to -9%.

Communities of the local bloc marked by the fall in public procurement but resilient

Despite a drop of -24% in 2020, the communities of the local bloc retain a preponderant weight in public procurement in France (55%). This weight has been stable over the past six years.

Within this group, the municipalities were particularly marked by the crisis and its consequences: their purchases fell by 31%.

Public buildings first to benefit from public procurement

With more than € 18,5 billion in public procurement in 2020, buildings remain the main destination for public procurement. The share of the municipalities, which still have significant assets, is significant here.

From works contracts to service contracts

Local authorities and their groups are the main buyers in the field of works. Works contracts (new and renewal), which have long dominated public procurement, continue to give way to service contracts. The weight of the latter in public procurement as a whole has thus increased from 28% in 2012 to 41% in 2020.

Since 2012, the date of the first observations of the AdCF / Banque des Territoires Barometer, the volume of public orders for new works has fallen sharply: from € 20 billion in 2012, it fell to € 14 billion in 2014 with the drop in allocations of the state to communities. It increases to € 8,5 billion in 2020.

Intercommunities "champions" of engineering markets

The analysis of the public engineering order is enlightening on the role that inter-municipal authorities play today in terms of supporting and steering projects at the local level: their weight in the engineering markets, often a harbinger of future projects. come, strengthens noticeably. In 2020, the intercommunalities will thus concentrate 31% of the engineering markets and unions 15%.

A rebound at the end of 2020 which should continue in 2021

After two lowest first quarters since 2012, the year 2020 ends with a rebound. Public purchases made in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2020 (€ 37,7 billion) remain lower than those made over the same period in 2019 (€ 42,1 billion), but are equivalent (2017) or even higher than the purchases made over the last quarters of the other years of the mandate (2014-2020).

The resumption of the activities of the municipalities and their intercommunalities appears fairly clearly in the second half of 2 with a clear rebound in public procurement from these principals.. If municipalities and intercommunalities have incurred unforeseen expenditure in 2020 (protection, aid to economic and associative sectors, etc.), many expenses were not incurred. The control of expenditure combined with the stability of income in 2020 has often made it possible to maintain a good level of their savings. The renewal of the “safeguard clause” also serves the recovery movement observed in many areas: by securing the communities most affected, it supports the recovery in 2020 and 2021.

“These indicators for the second half of 2020 are an encouraging sign. This must be seen as a catch-up effect at the end of the year, which originates with the effective start of local mandates, with a lesser impact of the second confinement on the functioning of public services and businesses ”
Sébastien Miossec, Deputy Chairman of the AdCF

“In 2020, the sudden and unparalleled health crisis in full electoral renewal, upset the usual benchmarks of local public action. Everything is not yet stabilized even if the driving force of the recovery plan and the resources devoted to it draw a prospect. In the months to come, we will have to be attentive and involved in new territorial dynamics because this is where the country's rebound is mainly played out. The analysis of public procurement is more than ever of great use. "
Gisèle Rossat-Mignod, Director of the Banque des Territoires network

To consult the AdCF and Banque des Territoires public procurement barometer, click here