Michel Sapin, Minister of Economy and Finance, during a conf # XE9; press briefing, on 18 March 2015.
Michel Sapin, Minister of Economy and Finance, at a press conference on March 18, 2015 – SIPA

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The INSEE released Thursday morning national accounts. It turns out that the public deficit of France in 2014 is equivalent to 4% of its gross domestic product (GDP). A better than expected because, while the public deficit was 4.1% in 2013. The government was counting on from 4.4%.

This fiscal performance “opened the prospect of a downward revision in the government deficit in 2015 to around 3.8% of GDP “, instead of 4.1% as expected previously, said in a statement, Michel Sapin, Minister of Finance .

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A room to fulfill the requirement set by Europe

The Insee Note that this “slight reduction in the need for government funding” in 2014 compared to 2013, with a public deficit in absolute value of 84.8 billion euros against 86.4 billion in 2013, was due to “substantially” by a significant decline in investment in local communities. They were down € 4.8 billion

France has some flexibility to meet the requirement set by the European Commission. – A 2015 deficit of 4% of GDP.

The public debt increased by more than 2.5 points

“The government is fully confident in its ability to bring the deficit below 3% by 2017, while confirming the recovery in activity and funding priorities, “said Minister of Finance.

Debt public continues to increase. It was 95% of GDP at end 2014 against 92.3% in late 2013. Michel Sapin promises that it “does not reach” the level of 100% of GDP.

Regarding the details of the public deficit, INSEE showed that total public spending rose 1.6% in 2014. It reached 57.2% of GDP last year against 57% in 2013. The samples Required are meanwhile remained stable at 44.7% of GDP.