France, the euro zone's second-biggest economy, revised its public budget deficit target for this year to 5.1% of economic output from 4.4% previously, but still aims to bring it below the EU-mandated 3% of GDP in 2027, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
With high interest rates, sluggish growth and a history of overspending, the French government is under pressure to spell out how it will avoid a budget crunch that is putting its credit ratings at risk and threatening Emmanuel Macron's government.
In a briefing to reporters, finance ministry officials said the government would aim to cut an extra 10 billion euros ($11 billion) in public spending in 2024, after already announcing 10 billion euros of emergency cuts earlier this year.
They called the new targets "ambitious but credible".
Although France missed last year's deficit target by a wide margin, the government refuses to abandon hope of shrinking the fiscal shortfall to less than an European Union limit of 3% by 2027, the end of Macron's five-year term.
The deficit in 2023 was 5.5% of GDP, overshooting the government 4.9% target. Several other EU countries, notably Italy, are also running deficit's above the 3% limit.
