FRANCE PRODUCES 2025 BUDGET – Budget Minister proposes cutting 2,200 jobs in ministries and state operators
France’s government delivered its 2025 budget on Thursday (October 10) with plans for 60 billion euros ($65.68 billion) worth of spending cuts and tax hikes on the wealthy and big companies to tackle a spiralling fiscal deficit.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s new government is under increasing pressure from financial markets and France’s European Union partners to take action after tax revenues fell far short of expectations this year and spending exceeded them.
But the budget squeeze, equivalent to two points of national output, has to be carefully calibrated to placate opposition parties, who could not only veto the budget bill but also band together and topple the government with a no-confidence motion.
“The primary aim of this budget is to reduce our deficit and contain our debt,” Finance Minister Antoine Armand told journalists.
Lacking a majority by a sizeable margin, Barnier and his allies in President Emmanuel Macron’s camp will have little choice but to accept numerous concessions to get the budget bill passed, which is unlikely before mid to late December.
