Draft budget legislation submitted to the French parliament on Wednesday included an increase in spending on defence, education and justice, while economy and finance minister Bruno Le Maire said the public deficit, now at 8.4 per cent of gross domestic product, will be brought back below 3% of economic output by 2027.
FrenchFrench President Emmanuel Macron’s final budget before elections in April omitted details on signature programs for long-term investment and supporting jobless youth, as his government sought instead to underscore his record on cutting taxes and reducing the deficit, reports Bloomberg.
The draft law submitted to parliament on Wednesday would enact the final steps Macron set out nearly five years ago to phase out resident tax for households and cut the corporate tax rate to 25% from more than 33% when he took office.
On spending, the government is sticking to plans to increase defense, education and justice budgets while winding down the emergency support provided to firms and businesses that stretched finances during the Covid-pandemic.
But there were no details on how Macron intends to finance the investment in new industrial sectors his government has said will cost 10s of billions of euros between now and 2030. Nor were there any indications of the cost of a special income designed to get unemployed and unskilled young people into work.
