The first formal estimate of the 2017 deficit will be delivered on March 26 by Insee, but the government is more or less settled on its fate.
Thanks to additional tax revenues, caused by the dynamic growth of 2% and the good performance of the Social Security accounts and local authorities, the 2017 deficit will not be 2.9% of GDP as initially forecasted in the finance law, but rather 2.7% or 2.8%.
For the record, each 0.1 corresponds to approximately 2 billion euros.
It is essential for France to be below the 3% of GDP threshold to exit the Brussels procedure for excessive deficit. As a reminder, in 2016, France’s public deficit amounted to 3.4%.
