France: two more years to get to the 3% deficit objective
LONDON | By JP Morgan analysts | The French Finance Minister, Michel Sapin, announced this week that the deficit objective of 3.8% of GDP for 2014 would not be reached. This news was not surprising as the Ministry of Finance hinted this summer that the general government deficit would likely to be above 4% this year. But in his last speech, Sapin suggested that the magnitude of the revision would be large, as the government now expects a deficit of 4.4% for 2014. This represents a 0.1% worsening of the deficit with respect to 2013.