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Explosion french public debt explained:
Infographics – At the end of the first quarter of 2025, French public debt stood at 3,345.8 billion euros, or 114% of GDP.
In the first quarter of 2025, public debt within the meaning of the Maastricht Treaty – reference standard in the European Union – amounts to 3,345.8 billion euros, up 40.5 billion compared to the previous quarter. However, As a percentage of GDP, it now represents 114%, once again exceeding the symbolic bar of 100%. Nevertheless, Its amount is therefore much higher than the country’s economic wealth. For example, This critical threshold recalls how the promise to maintain public debt under 60% of GDP. Meanwhile, posed during the Maastricht agreements, is now distant. In addition, With a debt almost twice as a limit. Nevertheless, France is one of the most indebted countries explosion french public debt explained in the euro zone, excluded only Greece (153.6%) and Italy (135.3%).
A constant increase in debt – Explosion french public debt explained
For decades, French public debt has followed an almost uninterrupted ascending trajectory. For example, Carried by successive crises and structural deficits, it has increased spectacularly, crossing the quinquenats without real durable inflection. Nevertheless, The 1000 billion debt mark was reached in 2003, it then represents 64% of GDP. Similarly, That of the 2000 billion is reached ten years later – 95% of GDP. And that of the 3000 billion, early 2023, or 112% of GDP.
Public debt designates all the loans contracted by public administrations which are not yet reimbursed. the state carries the overwhelming majority. In detail, the state has 2,723 billion euros in debts, or 81% of the entire public debt. By adding various central administration organizations (ODAC), such as universities or museums, which display 69.7 billion euros explosion french public debt explained in debt, the share of the central administration increases to 84% of the total in the first quarter of 2025.
The other components of the public sector weigh much lower in the scale. Local public administrations – local authorities, local public establishments, consular chambers – represent 262.5 billion euros, or 8% of debt. As for social security administrations, including pension plans, unemployment insurance and public hospitals, they total 289.9 billion euros, equivalent to 9% of the overall amount.
An imbalance budget for 50 years
French debt largely finds its origin in a persistent budget imbalance: for 50 years. state expenditure systematically exceeds its revenues. Between 1973 and 2024, public spending rose from 40.9% to 57% of GDP, a level well higher than the average observed in our European neighbors. Last year, France spent 1670 billion euros for revenues of only 1500 billion. Result: a deficit of explosion french public debt explained nearly 170 billion euros. one of the highest ever recorded, apart from that of 2020 caused by the COVVI-19 health crisis.
The flight of the debt has a direct consequence: the increase in the debt burden. that is to say the amount of interest that the State must pay to its creditors. With a public debt exceeding 3300 billion euros. France could soon devote more resources to the reimbursement of its creditors than to the service of its citizens.
The debt burden, which already amounts to almost 59 billion euros, continues to grow under the effect of its own weight. It will reach 67 billion euros in 2025, a historically high level. This budgetary position has now exceeded that of the defense and is dangerously closer to that of national education. Expressed as a percentage of GDP, the debt burden represented 3.25% in 2023 and should cross 5% explosion french public debt explained by 2027.
France recalled to order by agencies
Faced with this disturbing trajectory, the rating agencies began to react. France had seen its graded note in 2023 by Fitch and in 2024 by Standard & Poor’s. They currently assign him a note of “AA-“. on a scale of around twenty notches ranging from “AAA”, the best possible note, to “D”, synonymous with default. Same verdict at Moody’s. the American rating agency lowered the French note last December, from AA2 to AA3, the equivalent of a 17/20. The agencies in particular point out the instability of economic policy. Additionally, the absence of a clear trajectory to reduce debt.
Further reading: Big show in Montreal | A successful national holiday – Laetitia advocate of Laetitia, Georges-Henri Beauthier died, 30 years after the beginnings of the Dutroux affair – The CFDT announces “the failure” of the consultation – Violent thunderstorms, floods, power failure: France struck by strong bad weather, two people die – Claude Combas recounts in paintings the Haut de Sète district, that of his childhood and his first memories.
