“Whatever it takes, it’s over. » At the end of August 2021, before the business leaders brought together by the Medef, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire announced the end of this massive support policy deployed by the public authorities at the worst of the Covid-19 crisis to avoid the collapse of the economy. A message that he has not stopped carrying since, with each new unforeseen event, restart of the virus or peak of inflation. Six months later, here he is again on the airwaves to warn the French: there will be no new “whatever the cost”, even if the war in Ukraine drives up energy prices and places part of the households in a difficult situation.
“I hear perfectly those who tell me we have to redo a second ‘whatever the cost’, but I tell them no, it’s not the right answer”, he repeated Wednesday, March 9 in Bercy during a conference on energy independence, in front of politicians, bosses, energy specialists and economists. Reason: « it would only fuel higher prices and inflation” that are already hitting the country. In other words, this would amount to “throwing gasoline on a fire” and “would aggravate an inflationary shock”he argued, comparing the situation to that of the oil shock of 1973. The response provided by the public authorities had then, he said, led the central banks « to massively raise rates, which had killed growth. It has a name, stagflation. This is precisely what we do not want to experience again in 2022”.
However, the resumption of inflation since the end of the summer, brutally aggravated by the Ukrainian crisis, pushed the Ministry of Finance to loosen the purse strings much more massively than it had imagined. In six months, the executive has been forced to multiply checks to support households: gas price freeze, “shield” capping the rise in electricity, inflation check for fuel, energy check for heating, raising the kilometer scale for motorists…
The bill has continued to climb to now approach 25 billion euros, to which must be added a contribution from EDF estimated at 8 billion euros. And it should continue to increase, warned Bercy. “It’s massive, massive, massive, simply, the increases are spectacular”admitted Emmanuel Macron during a trip to Poissy on Monday March 7, listing the announcements. “On energy prices, the president did not wait for the candidate”, he quipped.
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