The Court of Auditors, however, said it believed the 2025 deficit is likely to be even greater, as that forecast is based on government projections on growth and savings from tax cuts that the report’s authors deemed optimistic.
“We need to take back control. Over the past years, especially in 2023 and 2024, we have lost control of our public finances,” the court’s president, Pierre Moscovici, said in an interview Monday with radio station RTL.
France’s state budget deficit has ballooned in recent years, reaching 5.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2024 — well over the 3 percent limit set by European Union rules. The French government has pledged to bring the deficit down to 5.4 percent of GDP in 2025 and back to 3 percent of GDP by 2029.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund recommended that France cut social spending and further reform its pension system to rein in its massive deficit.
In their report, the auditors recommended reconsidering targeting cuts to employers’ mandatory contributions to the social security system and limit the use of expensive paramedical staff.
