France has “one of the worst deficits in its history” according to the Minister of Economy

The new French Minister of Economy, Antoine Armand, judged on Tuesday that France's public deficit was "one of the worst in (its) history.""Apart from one or two years of exceptional crisis in the last 50 years, we have one of the worst deficits in our history. The situation is serious," Mr. Armand said on France Inter radio. Like several other EU member states, France is the subject of an excessive deficit procedure by Brussels. Concerning a possible increase in levies for certain large companies, including the head of the main French employers' union Medef, Patrick Martin, who said he was "ready to discuss" under conditions, the minister responded: "We will work on it with him, with all companies of all sizes, and obviously with the social partners." "Dialogue with the social partners must be resumed," the minister added."We will work to the extent that this situation is serious. (...) My job is to ensure that any levies that exist do not hinder our growth, do not hinder the creation of jobs," he said.Prime Minister Michel Barnier had mentioned on Sunday "targeted levies on wealthy individuals, or certain large companies" to help restore public finances, which have deteriorated significantly and are threatened by a new drift in the public deficit this year, after an initial slippage in 2023."People who have very large assets, who sometimes do not pay much tax, (...) we will look at this in the coming weeks (...): can they contribute more in the situation we are experiencing?", the Minister of the Economy specified on Tuesday.The French government must present at the beginning of October, with an unprecedented delay, a draft budget for 2025 with the aim of trying to begin the recovery of public accounts.Like the head of government, Antoine Armand repeated that the middle classes would not be affected by a possible increase in taxation.A new right-wing government took its first steps in France on Monday, with a first Council of Ministers, two and a half months after early legislative elections which produced no majority and delayed the preparation of the 2025 budget.Source: Burkina Information Agency