Headline balance
Observed revenue minus expenditure.
CONSTITUTION · BUDGET · ACCOUNTABILITY
What does a balanced budget really mean? Preventing metric manipulation
A constitutional rule only works if its measurement cannot be changed to manufacture compliance.
Document status : Citizen working prototype requiring expert review: these drafts are not opinions of the Conseil d’État, the Constitutional Council or any public institution.
Three balances
Cyclical component
The estimated effect of the economic cycle.
Structural balance
An estimate corrected for the cycle and some temporary measures.
Why one metric is not enough
Structural balance depends on estimates such as potential output. A robust rule therefore needs more than one indicator.
Three-layer lock
combines an ordinary structural-balance rule, an expenditure ceiling and an ex-post correction account inspired by the Swiss approach.
Anti-gaming rule
The calculation method applying to an exercise could not be changed after the budget is filed; methodological revisions would require publication and back-cast series.
Working documents and data
Legal and institutional sources
French Constitution, Article 34
French fiscal council — official missions
Organic Budget Act, Article 61