IMF urges France to cut spending and resume pension reform to meet deficit targets
The International Monetary Fund on Monday 25 May called on France to accelerate fiscal consolidation, warning that current efforts are insufficient to bring the deficit to 3% of GDP by 2030. The IMF projects French economic growth of just 0.7% in 2026, constrained by the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Iran. It recommends extending working lives, increasing patient co-payments for healthcare, and resuming the pension reform suspended since 2023.
The International Monetary Fund on Monday 25 May published its annual review of France, judging the pace of the country's public-finance consolidation insufficient to meet its commitment to reduce the deficit to 3% of GDP by 2030.
The IMF projects French economic growth of just 0.7% in 2026, constrained by the continuing effects of the war in Ukraine and the impact of the conflict in Iran. The Washington-based institution said that level of growth is largely insufficient to address the challenges France faces.
To accelerate fiscal consolidation, the IMF recommends "reorienting current and social spending." Specific measures include extending working lives to increase contributions, adjusting redistribution mechanisms to demographic changes as the population ages, and increasing patient co-payments for medicines and care, with out-of-pocket costs adjusted by income or health status.
The IMF also deplored the suspension of the 2023 pension reform and recommended the government quickly resume the reform. However, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is unlikely to reopen the pension issue in the current crisis context, the report noted, though the recommendations could inform the thinking of his successors at Matignon.