President Emmanuel Macron, elected in May, promised during campaigning to keep France in line with the EU Stability Pact’s budget rules—notably, that the deficit must not exceed 3.0 percent of overall output.
Paris: The French government will be able to meet the EU public deficit target in 2017 after identifying €4.5bn in savings, the public accounts minister said yesterday. “We have found 4.5 billion euros in savings... solely in the national government,” Gerald Darmanin told the daily Le Parisien. “Neither social security nor local authorities will come into it.”
President Emmanuel Macron, elected in May, promised during campaigning to keep France in line with the EU Stability Pact’s budget rules—notably, that the deficit must not exceed 3.0 percent of overall output. “We will keep France’s word,” Darmanin said.
Projected spending for 2017 totals €322bn and the new savings would bring down the public deficit from 3.2 percent to under 3.0 percent for the first time in a decade, Darmanin said. The deficit was 3.4 percent of GDP in 2016.
The Court of Auditors last month warned that the 2017 deficit ratio would reach 3.2 percent unless the government made “unprecedented” savings. Darmanin said the savings would be achieved without affecting “the services provided to the French people” or raising taxes, a commitment made by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. Budget planners have examined expenditures one ministry at a time. Among the envisaged cuts are a €526m reduction .
