French Finance Minister: to reduce deficit by cutting state spending

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said France would start on reducing its deficit by bringing down state spending, after data on Tuesday showed the country had overshot its budget deficit target for 2023.

Le Maire told RTL Radio that he was sticking to his target of bringing down the budget deficit to 3% by 2027, compared to 5.5% for 2023.

"We are keeping our target of getting back to 3% in 2027 and we will draw on the consequences regarding savings on all types of spending, state spending, social security spending and that of local governments," Bruno Le Maire told RTL Radio.