Franse regering bakkeleit met EU-commissie over economische vooruitzichten (en)
The French government is disputing the official forecasts made by the European Commission on its economy, calling the figures too "pessimistic".
French economic affairs minister Christina Lagarde criticised the estimations made on economic growth and deficit reduction on Monday (12 November).
"Clearly, I'm not satisfied with the growth figures for 2008 in particular," she was quoted as saying by Reuters during a press conference.
"I thought the forecast, especially the assumptions of the Commission regarding the budget deficit of France are a bit pessimistic and probably do not sufficiently take into account a number of facts concerning revenues and expenditures," she added.
According to the commission's forecasts for 2007-2009, released on Friday, the French economy will grow by an estimated 1.9 percent in 2007 and by two percent in 2008 - less than France's own official forecast range of 2.5 percent for both years.
France expects to run a budget deficit of 2.4 percent of its GDP for this year, slightly moving down to 2.3% in 2008.
But the commission expects that France will have a budget deficit of 2.6 percent for 2007, rising to 2.7 percent in 2009 - making Paris the worst performer in the 13-country eurozone.
Deficit limits to be breached?
EU economic affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia warned France on Friday, saying that even if growth deviates only slightly from the commission's forecasts, France will most likely breach the 3 percent deficit limit.
This spending ceiling is part of the Stability and Growth Pact, the rules underpinning the euro.
France is also putting its fellow eurozone members on edge, as it already made clear that it considers reaching a budget balance by 2010 unlikely, with president Nicolas Sarkozy saying that Paris needs the money to implement structural economic reforms.
Mr Sarkozy considers these reforms necessary to up growth and reduce deficit spending in the long run.
But on Monday, during a meeting of the Eurogroup, finance ministers of the eurozone reiterated that this explanation is not considered satisfactory.
"We have repeated (...) that all member states should have met their medium-term objective by 2010 at the latest," the group's chairman and Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker said.