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France's National Assembly definitively endorses 2016 budget

Xinhua, December 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

The National Assembly, France's lower house of parliament, on Thursday passed definitively the government's 2016 budget draft that aims at accelerating growth enough to trim joblessness and to respect the European bloc's financial limits.

The budget draft for next year suggested that the gross domestic product (GDP) of the eurozone's second main economy to stand at 1.5 percent from an expected 1.1 percent this year and sharply higher than 0.4 percent recorded in 2014.

Following efforts to squeeze public spending by additional 16 billion euros (about 17.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, the Socialists estimated the budget deficit at 72.3 billion euros or 3.3 percent of the GDP.

They pledge to bring down the figure under 3 percent, the rate mandated by EU by 2017.

To Frances' top official, Francois Hollande, next year's budget was "a confirmation of the five-year commitments" to put in order the public finances and "the budget of reform and guarantee for the French". (1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollars) Endit