French government will end year by going deeper in debt

Cécile Philippe and Nicolas Marques, November 2015

According to Eurostat data, the French government will have used up all of its resources by November 9, 16 days earlier than the European average, and will end the year by going deeper into debt. France – alongside Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia – is one of few countries to run deficits at all three administrative levels (central administration, local authorities and social security). Across the EU, lack of budgetary restraint by central administrations is the main source of public deficits. Among the 28 central administrations in the EU, only four are in surplus and the other 24 central administrations are spending their entire revenue before the end of the year.

> Download the full report (in French)

EPICENTER publications and contributions from our member think tanks are designed to promote the discussion of economic issues and the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. As with all EPICENTER publications, the views expressed here are those of the author and not EPICENTER or its member think tanks (which have no corporate view).