French PM justifies fiscal policy amid growing critics

The French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Tuesday defended his government's move on tax-raising. "I assume the fact that I have been forced to increase taxes. Given all the difficulties, we have progressed. We did not give up and it is now that everything will be played so this is not the time to falter," Ayrault told a gathering of Socialist lawmakers in Bordeaux, southwestern France. "The question is how the tax will be used and is it fair or not? We claim that the tax will fund priorities," he added. On Saturday, the French premier announced a carbon tax to be introduced in France in 2014 and expected to help the country to garner 4 billion euros (5.39 billion U.S. dollars) in receipts by 2016 by levying on all fossils fuels in proportion to the emissions they generate. In order to bring the deficit down, the government also planned to further squeeze public spending by 15 billion euros next year and to raise tax by 6 billion euros amid rising critics which denounced unfair measure likely to weaken further French households' purchasing power. Targeting to reach 0.1 percent GDP growth in 2013, the Socialists hoped to cut the budget deficit to 4.1 percent from 4.8 percent in 2012.