France's public debt will pass the 3 trillion euro (approximately $3 trillion) mark "in the weeks ahead," Gabriel Attal, Minister of Public Action and Accounts of France, said.
"In the coming weeks, we will overtake the 3 trillion euro debt mark. This year, debt servicing costs us 18Bln more than expected," Attal told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
According to the minister, in 2023, debt servicing will cost France 51.7Bln euros.
Earlier, France's National Institute of Statistics and Economic Research (Insee) reported that the country's public debt as of the end of the first quarter of 2022 was 2,901.8Bln euros or 114.5 percent of GDP. The institute's report noted that during this period, the debt has increased by 88.8Bln euros compared with previous indicators.
According to the report, such a sharp increase was mainly caused by an increase in the debt of government departments (up 64.8Bln euros), as well as social insurance structures (up 25.6Bln euros).