PARIS, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- The increase in public revenues helped France to narrow its budget deficit to 76.3 billion euros (88 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of September, down 8 percent from the 83 billion euros recorded in the end of September 2016, the country's Budget Ministry said on Tuesday.
France collected 238.3 billion euros of revenue at the end of September 2017, up by 4 percent from the 229 billion euros at the end of the same month last year.
The public expenditure amounted to 287.9 billion euros as of the end of September 2017, up by 3.8 percent from a year earlier.
In its first budget draft, since French President Emmanuel Macron took office in May, the multiform government forecasted the budget gap to be 2.6 percent in 2018 compared to 2.9 percent expected for 2017, down from previous estimates of 2.7 percent and 3 percent respectively.
Under pressure to honor financial and economic commitment, the government eyes to save 16 billion euros next year and further 80 billion euros by 2022 by freezing expenditure of some ministries, local authorities and social welfare. (1 euro=1.156 U.S. dollar)
