France targets to trim budget deficit to 1.2% in 2017

Under pressure to put in order its public finances, France is working to cut the budget deficit to 1.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, local media reported on Tuesday. Citing a government's report sent to the European Commission,, the daily Le Figaro said the eurozone's second main economy set the budget gap at 2.8 percent in 2015 before lowering the figure by 1.6 percent by the end of the ruling Socialists' mandate on "unprecedented" squeeze of public spending. Inheriting feeble economy and wide budget gap, the government had initially pledged to reach zero deficit 2017 by saving more billions of euros and promoting growth. For 2014, it hiked a previous budget gap set at 3.7 percent to 4.1 percent and cut its 2014 growth estimate to 0.9 percent from a first forecast of 1.2 percent. "Of course, we can always blame us for not achieving zero deficit in 2017, but we will reach the structural balance which ignores the economic fluctuations ... ," a government official was quoted as saying.