00:00Is France's pension system costing 55 billion euros a year?
00:09Prime Minister François Bayrou shocked France when he said in January that the country's
00:14pension scheme was hemorrhaging billions. Bayrou said that pensions were costing France
00:1955 billion euros a year and that the controversial 2023 pension reform would need another look.
00:25He commissioned France's Cour des Comptes, or Court of Auditors, to carry out a flash report
00:29on the country's coffers to provide objective facts and figures for any future changes to
00:35the pension system. The Court published its report on the 20th February, revealing that
00:39the pensions deficit will sit at some 15 billion euros by 2035 and then around 30 billion two years
00:46later. It's not quite the 55 billion that Bayrou suggested, but still a dire hole in the country's
00:52finances. The deficit will stabilise at around five billion euros for the next five years,
00:58thanks to the effects of the 2023 pension reform, but it won't be enough, according to the Court.
01:03It said that France's 2045 projected financial outlet for pensions is worrying and that two
01:09schemes in particular are the problem, the general pension scheme and that of local
01:14authority and hospital employees. The debt caused by these two schemes would balloon to 470 billion
01:20euros by 2045, according to the Court. It did highlight some positive points, though. It said
01:26that pensions would continue to grow during this period, not accounting for inflation,
01:31and that French pensioners would be in a better position than those in other OECD countries.
01:36Nevertheless, the pension reform, which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64,
01:42remains severely unpopular in France. And the Court of Auditors assessment,
01:46which suggests it doesn't go far enough in fixing France's overall 6.1% deficit,
01:52is a blow to cause to get rid of it.
Comments