FRENCH Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici says he is sticking to the aim of cutting public deficit to three per cent of output this year but the country's credibility won't be hit if it fails to do so.
Moscovici's comments came after revised figures by the national statistics agency showed the economy shrank by 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012 and growth was zero for the whole year.
The latest data puts the government in a dilemma over a commitment to the European Union to cut its public deficit to within the ceiling of three per cent of output this year as the eurozone, struggling as a whole with recession, fights its way out of the debt crisis.
"Our true commitment was to reduce our structural deficit by a huge margin," Moscovici told reporters from the Anglo American Press Association.
"The day I am speaking here I stick to the three per cent," he said.
"I am waiting for the growth forecast ... on Friday and then we will enter into a dialogue and we have got the tools for that," Moscovici said."We must not add austerity to the risk of recession."
The zero growth in France in 2012 is a sharp slowdown from growth of 1.7 per cent in 2011.
It scuttled France's chances of meeting its target of reducing the public deficit to 4.5 per cent of gross domestic product in 2012, which was based on the economy growing by 0.3 per cent.
It also threw into question the 2013 target of reaching the three per cent level that is the allowed ceiling for European countries.
Moscovici has said the government would now have to rethink its forecast for growth this year of 0.8 per cent.
But he said: "The credibility question relies on the structural deficit before anything else," Moscovici said.
"We will see what happens ... But I don't believe our credibility will be damaged if something exceptional intervenes."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
France still sticking to deficit target
Dengan url
http://jamdindingin.blogspot.com/2013/02/france-still-sticking-to-deficit-target.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
France still sticking to deficit target
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
France still sticking to deficit target
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar