The Court of Auditors warns of the need for "unprecedented efforts" on public spending

"Despite a robust economic recovery, the public deficit is expected to remain very high in 2021 (7% of GDP) and 2022 (5% of GDP), and reduce it to 3% in 2027 as the government expects" greater control efforts than in the past", estimates the financial jurisdiction in this report entirely devoted to the assessment of the management of the crisis linked to Covid-19.

And with the end of exceptional emergency spending, this deficit "now presents an exclusively structural character".

Public debt is therefore expected to increase by 560 billion euros between the end of 2019 and the end of 2022, representing approximately 113% of GDP.

The first efforts will not take place this year, despite the economic recovery, the institution pointing to the “significant” tax cuts still planned for 2022 (housing tax, production taxes, corporation tax, tax on the 'electricity...) and an increase in spending of 1.1%, excluding stimulus and support measures linked to the crisis.

In total, "nearly 9 billion euros of additional savings each year" will be necessary to limit the growth of expenditure to +0.4% on average between 2023 and 2027, according to the Court, which notes that between 2010 and 2019, successive governments were on a trend of +1% on average per year.

For the institution, achieving such an objective will therefore require reforms, in priority to the pension system, health insurance, employment policy, social minima and housing policy, as it has already advocated. in various reports.

The Court also scrutinizes in its annual report the management of the health crisis by the administrations and public bodies.

It reiterates its finding of an unpreparedness of public actors even if it welcomes their mobilization.

And she stresses that the emergency may have led to "overcalibration or insufficient targeting of aid", whether it concerns businesses or individuals.

In addition, the crisis "has revealed or accentuated" certain "structural weaknesses" of public services and bodies, estimates the Court of Auditors, citing in particular nursing homes, the economic model of Paris airports and sports clubs or even the supply of products medical.

© 2022 AFP