France will face a monetary setback of 424 Bn euros in three years due to increased spending and lower tax revenues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the government stated on Tuesday.
French Minister of Public Accounts Olivier Dussopt told Le Figaro daily newspaper that in 2020 about €158 Bn cost the state because of the pandemic-caused-health crisis. According to AFP stats, the figure is expected to rise to €171Bn in 2021 before reverting to €96 Bn in 2022. Between 2020 and 2022, the total estimated cost of the pandemic will be $504 Bn (€424 Bn).
The outlay includes supporting the salaries of temporarily unemployed persons and state aid for companies to avert an upsurge of bankruptcies in the nation after the pandemic.
France has hired out heavily during three nationwide lockdowns to prevent the economy from collapsing, and public debt is likely to reach 118 per cent of GDP this year, with the budget deficit to hit a postwar record of GDP's 9 per cent. On March 31, President Emmanuel Macron had extended the third lockdown until the end of April.
A recent study by France's Pasteur Institute indicated that 90 per cent of adults will need to be vaccinated for the country to get back to normal life since the British variant (B117) of Covid-19 has now dominated France.