In which areas does France spend more than euro area peer economies?

Bulletin No. 259, article 4. In 2024, public spending in France stood at 57.2% of GDP, among the highest in the euro area, just behind Finland. In 2023, the last year for which a breakdown of spending by function is available, France ranked first, with spending 7.5 percentage points of GDP higher than the euro area average (+9.3 percentage points of GDP compared to the euro area excluding France). This gap has widened significantly since 2001, when it stood at 5.5 percentage points of GDP (6.9 percentage points of GDP compared to the euro area excluding France).