Social spending in France
In 2021, the French state budget amounted to more than 400 billion euros. That same year, national education was the fourth largest public finance expenditure item with more than 77 billion euros invested.Social spending, including unemployment insurance payments, amounted to 31 percent of the French GDP in 2019. Other expenditure in the framework of allowances allocated in France include aid for the elderly, to people with disabilities or for childcare.
National debt challenges French economic model
Although the economy is rapidly liberalizing in France, the national economic system is still based on the principle of the welfare state, which intervenes regularly in the country's economy and finances to ensure that social services are developed for the well-being of its citizens.But this model is very expensive, the country keeps recording high debt levels. In 2021, the public debt in France reached 117.8 percent of the GDP, two points higher than in 2020, and 20 points higher than in 2019. However, France can take advantage of a relatively low interest rate in 2020, allowing it to invest in both the recovery and the ecological transition, as Bruno Lemaire, the Minister of the Economy and Finance, stated when presenting the 2021 budget. Interest payments on debt are at their lowest since 2010.
