AT when will the health crisis end? While France is crossed by the very contagious Omicron variant, the executive believes that it has reason to be optimistic, as Gabriel Attal indicated, Tuesday January 18 on CNews, with a situation which seems to be “stabilizing”. Good news, if confirmed, for the finances of the State which, for three years, has been putting its hand in its pocket to offset the effects of the Covid crisis. And the public spending figures are maddening.
In an interview with echoes, Wednesday, the Minister of Public Accounts Olivier Dussopt also confirmed this: “If we take the total count, over the three years hit by the health crisis (2020, 2021 and the start of 2022), the bill for these expenditures exceed 140 billion euros. “Emergency aid for businesses, recovery plan, solidarity plan which included the establishment of solidarity funds and the financing of partial unemployment, vaccines, screening tests… the famous “whatever it costs” d ‘Emmanuel Macron lasted, and cost dearly.
Spending still uncertain for 2022
According to Olivier Dussopt, the distribution of all of these expenses for the different crisis years is as follows: “70 billion in 2020, a little over 60 billion in 2021 and around ten billion for 2022.” The minister states moreover that “the provision of 5 billion qu[‘ils] of[aient] scheduled for vaccination and testing this year will be exceeded.” Recalling in passing that the screening test campaign should cost, for the month of January alone, just over 1.5 billion euros.
READ ALSOPublic deficit: how 2021 will save the year 2022
It is impossible to know for the time being the precise amounts that the State will commit for the needs linked to the crisis for the year 2022. The Minister indicated that the aid “announced at the beginning of the month to support the Omicron wave represents a cost of 150 million to 250 million per month in the current health situation”, much less than “what was committed at the worst of the crisis”. Olivier Dussopt also says he is cautiously confident for the months to come. “Growth remains better than what we had anticipated,” he said to the economic title.
Tax revenue higher than the state expected
And above all, “State revenue exceeds the forecasts of the amending finance law of October by nearly 20 billion”, announced the minister. In detail, households paid the State coffers 1.6 billion euros more than expected in income taxes and a single flat tax on capital income, while the TVA reported 3.6 billion more than expected. But it is above all the corporate income tax which represented the most significant gain, with 10 billion euros in unanticipated cash inflows.
READ ALSODid Emmanuel Macron “burn the cash register”?
The additional revenue should make it possible to contain the level of public debt for 2021 – which INSEE will calculate at the end of March – within a range of between 113% and 115% of gross domestic product (GDP), against 115.3% forecast, a clarified Olivier Dussopt, recalling that the public deficit would ultimately be “close to 7%”, against 8.2% anticipated in October.
READ ALSOHow the OECD calls on France to control its public spending