The government deficit declined slightly in February – BBC

The French state has declined slightly at the end of February deficit accumulated since the beginning of the year, to 23.4 billion euros against 25.7 billion a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The expenses decreased slightly to 600 million euros, reaching 64.2 billion euros at the end of February. At the same time revenues amounted to 47.9 billion euros against 46.8 billion euros a year earlier, with an increase of 800 million euros a year in tax revenues. This increase, however, is “not significant at the beginning of the management” of the 2015 budget, the ministry noted in a statement.

The deficit in special accounts, covering advances to regional authorities and plans Special pension, he has posted 7.2 billion euros, against 7.7 billion in late February 2014.

After getting late February two years additional time on the part of the European Commission to bring its public deficit (State, social protection, local authorities) to below 3% of GDP, France shows a more ambitious trajectory in this area that will ask Brussels. She hopes to increase from 4% in 2014 to 3.8% in 2015 and 3.3% in 2016 and 2.7% in 2017 (against 4% of the goals respectively 3.4% and 2.8% Recommended by the Commission), based on multi-year forecasts revised this week.