Public accounts worse than expected for France. Transalpine public debt, according to official data published this morning by Insee, reached a record level of 2012% of GDP in 90,2: the 90% threshold was exceeded for the first time, while in 2011 the figure was stuck at 85,8% and in 2009 it was less than 80%.
Instead, the deficit is reduced, but less than expected: in 2012 it is 4,8% of GDP, while the government, in agreement with Europe, had promised 4,5%. Very hard times for Hollande, who declared yesterday in a televised intervention on unified networks that "by 2013 the deficit will certainly drop to 3,7%, but we will try to do even better". Brussels is less optimistic, according to which the figure will drop to only 3,9% and at the end of 2014, while in the same period the public debt will reach 95% of GDP.
