France's budget gap widens in February

PARIS, April 3 (Xinhua) -- France's budget deficit has widened to 28.5 billion euros (35 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of February from 21.5 billion euros a year ago, the government data showed on Tuesday.

In its monthly report, the Budget Ministry said the widening deficit was due mainly "to calendar effect."

February's public expenditure valued 63.3 in total, up from 62.3 billion euros the same month last year while revenue was down by 3.5 percent to 48.9 billion euros, the ministry's figures showed.

In 2017, the government lowered the budget gap to 2.6 percent, for the first time below the European Union safe line of 3 percent after several broken promises to respect its financial commitment.

For this year, President Emmanuel Macron's executive team expects the budget deficit to represent 2.6 percent of the country's gross domestic product. (1 euro = 1.231 U.S. dollar) Enditem