French public debt at a record level of 114.1% of GDP, end of June

At the head office of INSEE, in Montrouge.

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French public debt swelled at the end of June to 114.1% of gross domestic product (GDP), or 2,638.3 billion euros, up 12.7 points compared to the end of March, the largest quarterly increase since that INSEE publishes this indicator in 1995, he reported on Friday.

"A part of the increase in debt (...) feeds the cash flow of public administrations in strong increase", in particular to meet "future financing needs linked to the health crisis" of Covid-19, explained the National Institute statistics in a press release.

The State debt in particular increased by 113.4 billion euros, details INSEE, to finance short-time working measures, deferral of charges and to offset the fall in tax revenue due to the fall in the economic activity.

The debt of the Social Security administrations (Acoss, Cades, Unédic, hospitals and Cnaf) also increased sharply by 84.9 billion euros, due to partial unemployment measures and postponements and cancellations of social contributions decided to support companies in difficulty during containment.

Finally, local government debt (Apul) is also on the rise (+2.7 billion), but to a lesser extent.

Due to the Covid-19 crisis and the spending, the government expects the debt to soar to 117.5% of GDP this year.

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