{"id":381694,"date":"2025-08-29T04:11:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/381694\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T04:11:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:11:17","slug":"is-frances-debt-situation-as-worrying-as-pm-francois-bayrou-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/381694\/","title":{"rendered":"Is France&#8217;s debt situation as worrying as PM Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou claims?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                         <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ecde7f7_upload-1-hzidooxry0a7-jmug250825060.jpg\" alt=\"French Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou, with his chief of staff, Pierre-Emmanuel Portheret and his deputy chief of staff, Adeline Savy, on August 25, 2025.\"   width=\"664\" height=\"443\"\/>    French Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou, with his chief of staff, Pierre-Emmanuel Portheret and his deputy chief of staff, Adeline Savy, on August 25, 2025.  JULIEN MUGUET FOR LE MONDE                 <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">&#8220;Our country is in danger because we are on the verge of becoming over-indebted.&#8221; With these dramatic words, Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou described France&#8217;s situation during his August 25 press conference. &#8220;An immediate danger hangs over us. We must face it today, without delay. Otherwise, the future will be closed to us, and our present situation will worsen,&#8221; the prime minister said. He then announced that he would seek a vote of confidence from MPs on September 8, ahead of the 2026 budget marathon. How did France get here, and is it a cause for concern?<\/p>\n<p>                What is the current state of France&#8217;s debt?           <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insee.fr\/en\/statistiques\/8599494\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Nouvelle fen\u00eatre\">According to the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE)<\/a>, France&#8217;s debt stood at \u20ac3.345 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2025. This figure has increased significantly over the past two decades. From 60% of the gross domestic product (GDP) at the start of the 2000s, it crossed the 100% threshold in 2020 due to the pandemic and has continued to rise, reaching 113.9% of GDP this year.<\/p>\n<p>    The evolution of French debt<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-decodeurs.lemonde.fr\/redacweb\/editorial-design-sys-assets\/burger.svg\" class=\"lmui-icon\" alt=\"Options d'accessibilit\u00e9\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>      In trillions<\/p>\n<p>      As % of GDP<\/p>\n<p class=\"sr-only\">Graph using data, use accessibility options to view raw data or enhance contrast.<\/p>\n<p>    In trillions<\/p>\n<p class=\"sr-only\">Graph using data, use accessibility options to view raw data or enhance contrast.<\/p>\n<p>      The data refers systematically to the level of debt at the end of each year. For 2025, however, the latest available figures are from the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n<p>    As a % of GDP<\/p>\n<p class=\"sr-only\">Graph using data, use accessibility options to view raw data or enhance contrast.<\/p>\n<p>      The data refers systematically to the level of debt at the end of each year. For 2025, however, the latest available figures are from the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"reading-mode-only \"><strong>You have 86.19% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou, with his chief of staff, Pierre-Emmanuel Portheret and his deputy chief of staff,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-381694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115110104249126943","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}