Baptiste Morin 08h00, December 09, 2022

Time for budgetary rigor?

The State has not finished putting its hand in its pocket to pay its colossal debt and its interest, 3,000 billion euros.

And that will not get better in 2023 since France is preparing to borrow a record sum, making it the country in the euro zone that issues the most debt.

Do not rely on the prevailing political discourse.

Listening to him, the "whatever it takes" would be over and the time would be at the budgetary rigor.

And yet, France will indeed borrow a record sum in 2023.

270 billion euros of borrowing is 10 billion more than for the year 2022. In 2023, France will be the country in the euro zone which issues the most debt.

A loan that swells because the deficit increases.

“In these 270 billion euros, there is first of all the 2023 deficit that must be financed”, explains François Ecalle, president of the reference site on public finances Fipeco, “it is around 130 billion euros. And then, you also have to borrow to repay past loans that are coming due." 

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Increasingly heavy loans

The State is borrowing more and more and this is costing it more and more.

In 2020 and 2021, he took advantage of negative rates that allowed him to repay less than he borrowed.

But it is now over.

Rates rose quickly.

In 2022, the average was 1%. 

Therefore, the debt burden, the interest to be repaid, also increases.

In 2021, it was 35 billion euros.

In 2022, it will have exceeded 50 billion euros.

And the liberal institute iFrap estimates the debt burden at 100 billion euros in 2027. interest rates were falling. There, that's it, we went in another direction", explains François Ecalle.

Who owns France's debt?

As to who owns France's debt, the answer is not obvious because a subscriber can resell his treasury bonds.

"We do know that a quarter of the debt belongs to the Banque de France. Another quarter belongs to French banks or insurance companies. Another quarter belongs to Europeans. And finally, a quarter , these are foreign holders outside Europe", explains François Ecalle.