The French government plans to raise 285 billion euros of debt on the financial markets in 2024, a record surpassing the 270 billion euros for 2023, Agence France Trésor announced on Wednesday on the heels of next year’s budget presentation.
Funding requirements in 2024 are lower than in previous years in that the state must find a total of 299.7 billion euros, a decrease of 10.6 billion euros compared to the updated 2023 financing requirement.
These savings are made possible by the reduction in the deficit to be financed, from 172.1 billion euros in 2023 to 144.5 billion euros for 2024. However, the government intends to cover its financing responsibilities without utilizing its cash reserves.
In addition, the state will have to amortize a higher amount of maturing debt in 2024 (160.2 billion versus 149.6 in 2023). The budgetary cost of debt in 2024 is forecast to rise to 52.2 billion euros in 2024 according to AFT, at a time when the government is facing a rise in interest rates in the markets.
The French debt continues to balloon with each passing year, and currently stands at 3 trillion euros, an increase of 800 billion euros since Macron came to power in 2017, incidentally.
French Les Republicains political figure Guillaume Kiefer said that in 2024, the debt burden will cost the nation’s citizenry almost the sum total of the army and justice system budgets combined, in pure waste. ‘’Debt isn’t just a tax on the future, it’s a tax that hypothecates the future, for what results?’’
From the perspective of Salim Laibi, ‘’Finance’s Mozart’’ (a reference to Macron who served as Minister of Finance and Economy in 2014), and ‘’Brubru’’ (a bird living in Sub-Saharan Africa and not-so-subtle reference to Bruno Le Maire, current Minister of Finance) are destroying France.