Finance
France Posts Smaller Than Expect 2024 Budget Deficit
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 27, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 27, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleFrance's 2024 budget deficit is 5.8% of GDP, smaller than expected. Public debt rose to 113.0% of GDP.
PARIS (Reuters) - France's public sector budget deficit widened last year but not quite as much as the government had expected, official data showed on Thursday.
The statistics agency INSEE said the 2024 public accounts showed a fiscal shortfall of 5.8% of economic output, up from 5.4% in 2023 but better than the government's last estimate of 6.0%.
The government had to repeatedly hike its 2024 deficit expectations as spending came in higher than expected and tax income fell short of estimates.
It aims to cut the deficit this year to 5.4% of economic output as a first step towards bringing the shortfall back in line with an European Union ceiling of 3% by 2029.
INSEE also said that France's public debt stood at 113.0% of GDP in 2024, compared to 109.8% in 2023 and the government's expectation of 112.7% in 2024.
(Reporting by Anna Peverieri; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
The article discusses France's 2024 budget deficit, which is smaller than expected at 5.8% of GDP.
The 2024 deficit increased to 5.8% from 5.4% in 2023.
France aims to reduce the deficit to 5.4% in 2025 and meet the EU's 3% ceiling by 2029.
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