France’s 2025 budget deficit was not as bad as predicted, giving a lift to government plans to reduce it under five percent, official figures showed on Friday.
The public deficit reached 5.1 percent of gross domestic product last year, the INSEE statistics institute said, slightly better than the 5.4 percent forecast.
That was 0.7 points below the figure for 2024, due to extra income from increased taxes, INSEE said.
France has been battling to reduce its debt, with the deficit remaining well above the three-percent limit set for members of the eurozone.
“The figures for 2025 encourage us to be ambitious about more reduction of the deficit in 2026,” Budget Minister Davi Amiel told TF1 television.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has pledged to bring it down to around 5 percent as part of the 2026 state budget passed earlier this year, before war in the Middle East sent energy prices soaring worldwide.
He welcomed the 2025 deficit figure, but said there was still work to be done.
“Public finances must be managed transparently, no matter what happens,” he said.
Lecornu rammed the 2026 spending bill through parliament without a vote to end months of political deadlock, and then survived no-confidence motions to topple his government.
France’s debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 115.6 percent at year-end, INSEE said, close to twice the 60 percent recommended by EU guidelines, and the third highest in the European Union after Greece and Italy.
