French public spending accounts for 58% of the economy according to IMF data, while the bond market reflects growing alarm with the country's fiscal trajectory as its finances buckle under a generous welfare state. France typically has to pay a higher interest rate on its 10-year debt than fiscally prudent Germany, with the gap between the two rates measuring financial markets' confidence in the fiscal position.
Fuel prices are up 36% this year in France, marking an increase three times greater than Australia, where total government debt sits at 53%.
Hundreds of thousands marched in cities across France on Saturday to protest underfunded schools, combining complaints of insufficient teacher numbers and dilapidated infrastructure with broader discontent about cost-of-living pressures.
The federal government can still borrow and has a lot of flexibility, whereas the French just have no money.
Across the developed world, people struggle to cope with an affordability crisis as households grapple with high and rising prices.
A decade ago, Australian debt was 40% of GDP, and a decade before that it was just under 10%.
France typically has to pay a higher interest rate on its 10-year debt than fiscally prudent Germany, and the gap between the two rates is a measure of financial markets’ confidence in France’s fiscal position.
The evidence of this growing demand for government intervention is that French public spending now accounts for 58% of the economy, the IMF data shows.
Fuel prices are up 36% this year in France, or three times the increase in Australia.