France's public sector deficit should be narrower than initially forecast this year after the country's finances fared better than expected in 2014, its finance minister said today.
The 2014 data released by official statistics office INSEE makes France confident of bringing the deficit below an EU cap of 3% of GDP on schedule in 2017, Michel Sapin said.
The euro zone's second-largest economy cut the fiscal gap to 4% of economic output in 2014 from 4.1% in 2013.
The statistics office figure "paves the way for a revision of the 2015 public deficit to about 3.8% of GDP," Sapin said in a statement.
During his 2012 election campaign, President Francois Hollande said the deficit would be brought down to the EU limit by end-2013 but France has since pushed the target back several times.
European Union finance ministers earlier this month gave France two more years to cut the deficit to the 3% limit.
They extended the deadline for the third time since 2009 but asking it to beef up its reform efforts and savings.
"The government is fully confident that it can bring its public deficit below 3% in 2017, while helping the economic recovery," Sapin said in the statement.
France's gross public debt rose last year to 95% of gross domestic product from 92.3% in 2013.
The lower than expected public deficit comes partly thanks to local authorities.
While they had in the past largely contributed to France missing fiscal targets, their deficit eased this year, as did the social security deficit.
The central government's deficit increased less than forecast.
The French government has repeatedly revised fiscal targets.
While the 2014 deficit data published by INSEE today was better than the government's latest 4.4% estimate it was nevertheless higher than the 2014 budget's initial target of 3.8%.
