Europe's 3 percent deficit target – brief history of a political fetish made in France
The French government has revealed that it will almost certainly not be able to meet its objective of trimming the public spending deficit to 3% of GDP by 2013. But where did this slavishly-followed rule – now enshrined in European treaties - come from in the first place? And does it have any economic validity today? Lénaïg Bredoux explores how and why this crucial figure was first created and discovers it dates back more than 30 years...
TheThe prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault made it official last week when he appeared on public broadcaster France 3's news bulletin. France would “not exactly” meet its 2013 objective of getting the public deficit down to 3% of gross domestic product, he conceded. This is despite the fact that the government itself has insisted that it must and would meet this target.
