France to freeze 1 bln euros of spending this year

The French government will freeze one billion euros' ($1.25 billion) worth of planned spending by ministries this year to meet its budgetary targets, Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac said on Tuesday. He said Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault had ordered that "certain spending that had been planned would not take place immediately and would be included in a spending freeze already under way. "Every ministry will contribute," he told BFM TV news, except for the education, justice and interior ministries. Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said on Monday that France must find up to 10 billion euros to cut its public deficit to 4.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). In 2011, France posted a public deficit, which includes state and social services spending such as the public health system, of 5.2 percent of GDP, and in March the former government cut its 2012 target to 4.4 percent. Under EU rules, eurozone countries are supposed to keep deficits below 3.0 percent of GDP, and work towards a balance or even a surplus in times of economic growth.