France general government gross debt and % of GDP

1999  58.9 %

2000  57.3 %

2001  56.9 %

2002  58.8 %

2003  62.9 %

2004  64.9 %

2005  66.4 %

2006  63.7 %

2007  64.2 %

2008  68.2 %

2009  79.0 %

2010  82.3 %

Interesting to note that the 2008 financial crisis following Lehman’s collapse often used to justify the excess of debt in the eurozone as governments chose to sharply increase public spending to respond to the banking crisis is only responsible for 10.8% of the debt. Now should u attribute the jump from 68.2 in 2008 to 79 in 2009 to the response to market stress in the first semester of 2009 and only that which is questionable, the obligation for the gross general gov debt to remain under 60% of GDP was not respected for a very long time, actually since the 2003 budget adopted late 2002.