France's public debt topped €2.0 trillion for the first time in Q2 of the year, the national statistics agency INSEE has said.
The total national debt amounted to €2.023 trillion ($2.57 trillion), INSEE said, which represents 95.1% of gross domestic product (GDP).
European Union rules limit debt to 60% of GDP.
In the first quarter of the year, the debt stood at €1.995 trillion, or 94.0% of GDP, INSEE said.
France is already on a collision course with the EU over its budget deficit, which is supposed to be kept under three percent of GDP.
The French government promised to bring the deficit under three percent by next year but, in an about turn, announced earlier this month that it was pushing back this target until 2017.
France is struggling with an economy at a standstill and sky-high unemployment.
There has been zero growth for the first two quarters of the year and Finance Minister Michel Sapin is banking on sluggish output of 0.4% for the whole of the year.
Tomorrow France will publish its annual budget expected to confirm the gloomy outlook and reaffirm it will miss its deficit targets.
