France to miss deficit target: EU

FranceFrance will miss an agreed target to cut its public deficit, the EU said on Tuesday, with Spain's battered economy showing few signs of catching up recovery in the northern eurozone, reports FRANCE 24.

The latest European Commission economic forecasts said the French government deficit will hit 4.1 percent this year, 3.8 percent next year and still post a 2015 shortfall at 3.7 percent.

With French output struggling to keep in line with the eurozone's core German economy, French President Francois Hollande faces pressure from Brussels to meet the EU's 3.0-percent-of-GDP ceiling.

The risk otherwise is that Paris could face new EU fines or an unprecedented intervention to France's national budget.

Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.