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France 2015 budget gap at 70 bln euros, below gov't forecast: FinMin

Xinhua, January 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

France, one of the main economic powerhouses in Europe, managed its public finances better than expected in 2015 with its budget deficit at 70 billion euros (76.42 billion U.S. dollars), down 5.4 percent from a previous estimate, a government official said on Thursday.

"The 2015 deficit is reduced much more than expected. The state budget has been managed seriously enough to allow us to exit the crisis," Finance Minister Michel Sapin said.

The government previously estimated the country's budget gap at 74 billion euros for all of 2015.

Speaking to local broadcaster Europe1, Sapin reiterated Paris would lower the budget gap to 3.0 percent, the rate mandated by the European Union (EU), by using "all means" to honor its fiscal commitment after breaking financial pledges several times.

Under their 2016 financial plan, the governing Socialists forecast the budget deficit to be 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) next year. However, it pledged it would lower the figure to 2.8 percent, below the EU-mandated threshold. Endit