On Monday, the government presented its budget for 2021. Everything is out of the ordinary and the spending is considerable to save the country's economy "whatever the cost" after the Covid crisis.

However, there is little chance that it will be held and some expenses that seem inevitable, such as short-time working, have been forgotten.

Nicolas Barré takes stock of a current economic issue.

Everything is out of the ordinary in the budget presented on Monday by the government.

So much so that the expenditure and revenue scenarios are unlikely to be met.

It is a budget built on quicksand.

Companies that are also currently making their budgets for next year are asking the same question: do we make a budget assuming that the Covid crisis will be over next year or that it will leave?

This is the first hypothesis that was retained, after all, we do not know how the pandemic will develop.

But suddenly, Eric Woerth, the president of the Finance Committee in the Assembly has a nice game to speak of "zombie budget" since indeed, the bases on which this 2021 budget is based are very uncertain.

What we can remember anyway is that the floodgates are wide open.

Yes and that frankly makes you dizzy.

Notice the paradigm shift.

Before the Covid, increasing spending was bad, it was a sign that we did not know how to keep the nation's accounts.

Now, increasing spending is good, a sign that everything is being done to save the nation's economy, "whatever the cost" as the president said.

So here we go.

The ministries' appropriations will jump by more than 11 billion.

Ecology: + 5.6%.

Defense: + 4.5%.

Justice: + 8%.

Education: + 2.6%.

Culture: + 3.7% etc.

It should be added that despite these largesse, there is a great risk of unforeseen expenses.

For example, the budget for next year does not foresee anything for partial unemployment, it is not very prudent.

Spending is soaring but it is to avoid the collapse of the economy.

Over two years, France will lose 370 billion in wealth.

It's the equivalent of an economy like Israel that has evaporated.

This is a considerable impoverishment of nearly 6,000 euros per French.

This in fact justifies an increase in public spending to mitigate the shock.

France, to finance all this, will borrow 260 billion on the financial markets.

Against 200 billion before the Covid.

But the challenge then will be to get back to the nails.

To reduce spending when the economy is better, to restore the accounts of the Social Security, to start deleveraging to prevent the debt from becoming unsustainable.

This nice program is the one that should apply from 2022, for the next five-year term.