Faced with outbreak of energy prices, executive confronted with spectrum of a new “whatever it costs”

While the government prepares new gestures to support households and businesses, Bercy moves any new massive plan. One way to reassure Brussels and seduce the right electorate.

by

“The whatever it costs, it’s over.” At the end of August 2021, in front of the business leaders gathered by the MEDEF, the Minister of the Bruno Economy the Mayor announced the end of this support policy Massif deployed by the public authorities at the worst of the CVIV-19 crisis to avoid the collapse of the economy. A message that he has continued to wear from each new unexpected, restart of the virus or peak inflation. Six months later, here he go on the waves to prevent the French: there will be no new “whatever it costs”, even if the war in Ukraine makes the prices of energy flaming Part of households in a difficult situation.

“I hear perfectly those who tell me we have to redo a second” whatever it costs “, but I tell them no, it’s not the right answer,” he repeated Wednesday 9 March in Bercy at a conference on energy independence, in front of politicians, bosses, energy specialists and economists. Reason: “It would only feed the increase in prices and inflation” that already strike the country. Clearly, it would be like “throwing gas from a fire” and “would aggravate an inflationary shock,” he argued, comparing the situation to that of the 1973 oil shock. The response by the public authorities He had then, “he said,” leads the central banks “to massively increase the rates, which had killed growth. It is a name, the stagflation. This is precisely what we do not want to relive in 2022”.

Yet the restart of inflation since the end of the summer, brutally aggravated by the Ukrainian crisis, pushed the Ministry of Finance to loosen the cords of the stock market much more massively than he had imagined. . In six months, the executive was forced to multiply checks to support households: gas price gel, “shield” ceasing the rise in electricity, inflation check for fuel, energy check for heating, recovery Chaometric scale for motorists …

The invoice has stopped climbing to now approach the 25 billion euros, which must be added an EDF contribution valued at 8 billion euros. And she should continue to increase, warned Bercy. “It’s massive, massive, massive, simply, the increases are spectacular,” allowed Emmanuel Macron when traveling to Poissy Monday, March 7, by drawing up the list of ads. “On energy prices, the president did not wait for the candidate,” he believed.

You have 49.93% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.

/Media reports.