ECB’s Villeroy: ‘We Are in a Really Difficult Budget Situation’

19 December 2024

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau said on Thursday that France should lower its deficit and proposed that this be done via tax increases.

In an interview with French TV France 5, Villeroy, who heads the Banque de France, said that the country was ‘in a very difficult budget situation’.

The deficit should be lowered to 5% in France, he said.

Measures to fix this situation quickly required delivering tax increases, according to Villeroy.

Asked if new Prime Minister François Bayrou had asked him to join his government as finance minister, Villeroy said ‘I’ve been around too long and know that you have to take everything that is said with some distance.'

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