PARIS, July 3 (Xinhua) -- France aims to improve its finances by bringing down the budget deficit below one percent by the end of President Emmanuel Macron's five-year term, mainly via a plan to cut spending, government spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux said on Tuesday.
"We have an objective to narrow the deficit to below one percent by 2022. It's a clear target and we'll maintain it," Griveaux told BFMTV news channel.
With the aim, the government was working to reduce public expenditure by three percentage points from the gross domestic product (GDP) over the period, by freezing spending of some ministries, local authorities, and social welfare, he added.
In 2017, the government lowered the budget gap to 2.6 percent, the first time it had been lowered to below the European Union (EU) safe line of 3.0 percent after several broken promises to respect financial commitments.
For this year, Griveaux expects the budget deficit to represent 2.3 percent of the country's GDP.
Data released by the budget ministry earlier in the day, showed the country's budget gap was narrowed by 11.3 billion euros (13.16 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of May compared to the same month in 2017.
The ministry attributed the improvement in the country's finances to a 1.5-percent fall in public spending, including general budget and levies on receipts, which totalled 164.8 billion euros. (1 euro = 1.16 U.S. dollars)
