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PARIS (Reuters) – France’s budget deficit risks overshooting 6% of economic output this year, the country’s new budget minister, Laurent Saint-Martin, told lawmakers in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
“I hope and I propose that together we make the choice of turning things around,” Saint-Martin said, adding that his team was working on a new savings plan to be presented soon.
“I’m convinced that since our current situation is due to higher spending, it’s spending that needs to be cut first,” he said on his plans.
The last government had hoped to limit the 2024 budget deficit to 5.1% of GDP, but the latest estimates suggest it may be significantly higher.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier faces calls to quickly come up with realistic plans to rein in a spiralling fiscal shortfall as a growing budget crisis puts his new government to the test.
Speaking at a hearing with lawmakers of the National Assembly’s finances committee, Saint-Martin, who reports directly to the prime minister said current spending limits set for 2024 will be kept as they stand.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Benoit Van Overstraeten)