Covid: what are the economic consequences of "whatever the cost"?

"Whatever the cost," Emmanuel Macron said on March 12, at the start of the first confinement, about the means to be mobilized to fight against the coronavirus epidemic.

But "health is priceless" explained the head of state nine months later.

After a year of the coronavirus epidemic in France, the bill is steep. 

So 186 billion euros were spent during the crisis.

This sum includes partial unemployment, the solidarity fund, or even all the taxes that did not go into the State coffers because of the crisis.

We must also add the 100 billion of the recovery plan for the next two years. 

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Everything was financed mainly by debt.

In the short term, this will have no impact since we are borrowing today at very low, or even negative, rates.

In the longer term, on the other hand, if rates go up, it can be a real time bomb.

A reflection "useful at a time when many are talking about cancellations"

A commission has just been set up.

Its mission: to find a way to restore public accounts after the crisis.

An essential job according to the budget rapporteur to the National Assembly, Laurent Saint-Martin.

"These are reflections that can be anticipated, today we are spending a lot of money but this indebtedness will have to be reduced. For that, there must be a real reflection, from now on, to anticipate the various levers of reduction debt for tomorrow, "he explains.

For him, this reflection "will be extremely useful at a time when many are talking about cancellations, cantonment."

"We must put a little order with what is possible, not possible, legal and it will already be extremely valuable at this level," he adds.

The government assures us that it will not use the leverage of the tax hike.

But this promise will be difficult to keep over time.