This non-average French family owes the state a bit more: 200,000 euros.
France ends the year with a national debt of over 1.2 trillion euros, or 65.9% of GDP (gross domestic product)
The figure is higher than allowed according to the Maastricht treaty, which puts a ceiling of 60% to the national debt of each EC country. It will be a while before France meets that target: for 2008 the government hopes to reduce the debt to 64% of GDP.
In the meantime, the current French debt amounts to 20,000 euros per inhabitant, elderly and infants included. With an average household of 2.3, the debt per French household amounts to 46,000 euros.
The French debt level is comparable to that of the USA, where the citizen’s share of the national debt is $30,000.
The difference is that France created its debt without fighting an expensive war — just by playing Father Christmas for 30 years.
