Paris (AFP)

Debt remains the "dark spot" of public finances recognized Wednesday the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire, promising to initiate a reduction in public spending, in the aftermath of criticism from the Court of Auditors on the action of the government.

"I readily admit that there is a black spot that remains, that of debt. (...) In the long term I think it would be unreasonable not to fight to stabilize public debt French and start its decline, "he said on Public Senate on Wednesday.

Public debt rose to 98.8% of GDP last year. And it should barely decline to 98.7% this year, according to government forecasts.

Bruno Le Maire said to reflect, with the Minister of Public Accounts Gérald Darmanin, "on a certain number of proposals on two or three public policies on which we could say, well, there we could make an effort and it will allow ultimately reduce French public debt. "

"It is not a question of cutting like that at random. It is just to take one, two or three elements of public policies and then to commit in the long term, as we did on subsidized contracts, as we did on housing, as we did on chambers of commerce and industry, a progressive reduction in spending, while preserving sectors that are vital ", like the hospital, detailed the minister .

Responding to criticism from the Court of Auditors, which ruled Tuesday "almost at a standstill" the recovery of public finances, Bruno Le Maire defended conversely the work of the executive.

"We obviously do not share this assessment. We started to restore public finances in 2017," he said, citing the reduction in the public deficit.

"We have left the (European) excessive public deficit procedure, we are below the 3% deficit: 3.1% in 2019 because there was the transformation of the CICE into a reduction in charges which represented 0.8 points public deficit, 2.2% public deficit forecast for 2020 ", he listed.

In its annual report published Tuesday, the Court of Auditors criticized the executive for its "limited" ambition to redress the accounts of the state. "The recovery of public finances, already very gradual in recent years, is now almost at a standstill," she said.

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