Paris (AFP)
The government has raised its forecast for France's public deficit and debt in 2021, as a result of growth which should be lower than expected due to new health restrictions, Economy and Finance Minister Bruno announced on Sunday. The mayor.
"We estimate the public deficit for 2021 at 9%, instead of the 8.5% which had been entered in the initial finance bill and we estimate that the public debt will drop from 115% to 118% in 2021", declared the Minister during the television program Grand Jury LCI-RTL-Le Figaro.
Mr. Le Maire had previously announced in the Journal du Dimanche a downward revision of one point of the growth forecast in 2021, to 5% instead of 6% until then, in order to take into account the effects of the new measures of restriction taken this week to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Closing schools and 150,000 shops is essential to curb the circulation of the virus. But these measures will have an impact on the French economy. We will therefore revise our growth from 6% to 5% for 2021", while the French GDP contracted 8.2% in 2020, the minister told the JDD on Sunday.
"Mechanically, that has an impact on the deficit and on the debt", specified Sunday the minister to the Grand Jury LCI-RTL-Le Figaro, estimating that this revision is at the same time "fair and sincere".
The Governor of the Banque de France François Villeroy de Galhau for his part estimated Thursday that the restrictions announced this week "should not lead to a very significant revision of (his) forecast" of 5.5% growth for 2021 if they do not last beyond "early May".
© 2021 AFP