Reading Paris's finances: the no-jargon guide
Budget, balance sheet, M57, internal accounting entries — everything you need to read Paris's financial files without being a chartered accountant.
Revenue, spending.
Select a row to open its detail (sub-lines, year-over-year change).
Two kinds of spending: operating (day-to-day) and capital investment (what the city builds). New borrowing funds capital only: under the golden rule, it cannot fund recurring spending.
Is what gets voted actually spent?
The gap between the budget voted by Conseil de Paris and the administrative accounts that actually closed. Only available for past fiscal years.
Execution rate · 2019
95,4%
Voted budget: 10,28 Md € · executed: 9,81 Md €. The gap reflects under-execution or capex carry-over.
Voted
10,28Md €
Executed
9,81Md €
Absolute gap
− 478M €
Status
Executed
95,4% of voted
Voted vs executed
Voted
10,28 Md €
Executed
9,81 Md €
Execution reaches 95,4% of the voted amount. The gap represents €478M unspent by year-end.
Further reading
Articles, investigations and profiles connected to the numbers on this page.
Explanation
ExplanationThe municipal golden rule: what article L.1612-4 actually says
A municipality cannot borrow to pay its salaries. This rule, codified in article L.1612-4 of the Code général des collectivités territoriales, is what radically separates a municipal budget from the State's. Anatomy of a short text and its consequences.
ExplanationCan Paris go bankrupt?
Not in the commercial sense — French law forbids a municipality from disappearing. But a very precise prefectoral oversight regime kicks in if the financial golden rules are broken. No town of more than 10,000 residents has been placed under it since 2015. Anatomy of a scenario that has never happened.