Budget 2023: the government wants to show its "seriousness" while protecting against inflation

To contain the public deficit to 5% of GDP, the finance bill for 2023 expects an increase in expenditure below the rise in prices, but also on economic growth of 1% next year, higher than forecasts for the Banque de France (0,5%) and the OECD (0,6%), in particular.

The Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire acknowledged the "uncertainties" surrounding this forecast, in particular the war in Ukraine, but he assured that in the current circumstances, the French economy "resists" with fundamentals which "remain solid ".

On leaving the Council of Ministers, he considered that the growth forecast of 1% in 2023 was "credible and proactive".

Reacting to the criticisms of the High Council of Public Finances (HCFP), which considered the government's macroeconomic assumptions to be overly optimistic, Mr. Le Maire assured that he was not "deaf to criticism". But "we hold our line", he added.

Excluding inflation, most ministries see their budgetary appropriations increase, starting with the first of them, Education, which gains 3,7 billion euros to 60,2 billion.

The means of Defense increase by 3 billion, while those of the Labor and Employment mission, devolved in particular to vocational training and apprenticeship, increase by 3,7 billion compared to the rectified budget for 2022.

To better carry out its sovereign missions, the government plans 10.764 additional civil servant positions for the State and its operators in 2023, in particular in the Ministries of the Interior, Justice and National Education, against only 294 planned in 2022.

The Minister in charge of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, nevertheless reiterated the objective “of the stability of public employment over the five-year period”, suggesting reductions in positions in the years to come.

In total, state spending should nevertheless decrease by 9,6 billion euros due to the slowdown in the recovery plan and, to a lesser degree, the France 2030 plan.

Red line

Still, the good performance of public finances is compromised by the "financial commitments of the State", which are mainly composed of the debt burden. They are planned at the same level as the Education budget, at 60,2 billion euros.

In this context and to enable France to keep its European commitments, the Minister of the Economy affirmed to journalists that "France is within the euro".

"I want to draw a red line", he warned: "no new expenditure" can be introduced during the parliamentary debate if it is not "financed to the nearest euro".

His statements were not enough to reassure Medef, which denounced in a press release the government's "lack of ambition" to reduce public spending.

For its part, the Local Finance Committee, which defends the financial interests of communities, criticized through the voice of its president André Laignel (PS) a "globally calamitous" draft budget, which "amplifies the decline in fiscal autonomy and finance" of the local executives.

Mr. Le Maire described the budget as "responsible and protective in times of great uncertainty", affirming that "a narrow path" exists to rally enough opposition MPs to vote for a text that the government will otherwise adopt. without a vote, by having recourse to article 49-3 of the constitution.

The Minister conceded that due to the implementation of a tariff abacus limiting to 15% at the beginning of next year the increases in the regulated prices of gas and electricity, the draft budget "still tilts a little too much on the side of fossil fuels". This "can only strengthen our resolve to accelerate the climate transition", he added.

Before the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, he called on energy companies who offer energy-intensive companies gas and electricity supply contracts at exorbitant prices to show "solidarity with their customers". Mr. Le Maire announced that he would bring them together for this purpose with the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, "in the coming days".