Patrice Ract Madoux
Président de la CADES

 In 2008, CADES (Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale) reached once again the mission which was defined by the French Parliament to amortize 2.8 billion euros. During the year, we used a large range of financial instruments, of which 3 billions euros in benchmark bonds denominated in euros, 3.5 billion euros in benchmark bonds denominated in American and Australian dollars, and 0.566 billion euros in private placements and MTNs, (Medium Term Notes) totaling 8.6 billion euros in line with our objective.

I remind you here that, since 1996, the French State has chosen to manage distinctly its tradable debt and its social debt, enhancing the legislative procedures during the years. For the first time, at the end of 2008, the Public Accounts Ministry coordinated together votes of finance law and Social Security finance law. The finance law, voted for 2009, defined the variation of French debt (€24bn) which constitutes the authorized debt increase ceiling of AFT (Agence France Trésor). In the 2009 Social Security finance law, French Parliament voted the ACOSS (Agence Centrale des Organismes de Sécurité Sociale) overdraft ceiling: 18.9 billion euros and CADES amortizing objective: 4 billion euros.