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France given two more years to cut budget deficit

Xinhua, March 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

The European Union (EU) gave France two more years to bring its government deficit below 3 percent of GDP, the EU's reference value for deficits, the European Council announced on Tuesday.

This was the third time that the deadline for the correction of France's deficit had been extended since the country was subject to an excessive deficit procedure in April 2009.

In its new recommendation, the Council has set France's deficit targets of 4.0 percent of GDP for 2015, 3.4 percent for 2016 and 2.8 percent for 2017, according to a press release of the Council.

To meet those targets, France has to cut its structural deficit by an additional 0.2 percent of its GDP in 2015, 1.2 percent in 2016 and 1.3 percent in 2017.

The Council set a deadline of June 10, 2015 for France to take effective action.

According to the European Commission's 2015 winter economic forecast, France's government deficit was projected to reach 4.3 percent and 4.1 percent of GDP in 2014 and 2015 respectively, thus Europe's second biggest economy was set to miss the previous 2015 deadline that was extended in June 2013 for the second time. Endit