A minister stated on Wednesday that France would attempt to reduce its budget by five billion euros in order to help control its debt, but that some of the money would be redirected to defense.
Amelie de Montchalin, the minister of the budget, spoke as ratings firm Moody’s was set to release its latest assessment of French public debt on Friday.
France has had difficulty controlling its debt, and as a result, its deficit is still far higher than the three percent GDP cap set for eurozone members.
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou’s government is promising to wrench the deficit down to 5.4 percent of GDP this year, with the goal of getting back under three percent in 2029.
France’s debt rose by another 202.7 billion euros to 3.3 trillion euros ($3.55 trillion) last year, accounting for 113 percent of GDP, according to INSEE.
“There will be an extra five billion euros in efforts we will make in the coming weeks… to maintain the path to debt reduction,” de Montchalin said, adding that this money would be “cancelled, postponed or redirected”.
“Of these five billion, a part will go to essential defence spending” so France had “the means to support Ukraine” against Russia and rearm itself, she added.
Up until now, Moody’s has given France’s debt an Aa3 rating with a stable outlook, while S&P and Fitch, two other rating agencies, have given it an AA- rating with a negative outlook.
The threat of a global recession has increased as a result of the United States’ punitive tariffs on its trading partners.
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