France's budget deficit in June narrowed to 61.7 billion euros (81.2 billion U.S. dollars), down 25 percent from the same period last year, the budget ministry said Friday.
The reduction was in line with government efforts to trim double-digit deficits. The deficit was 82.4 billion euros (108.9 billion dollars) in June last year
Revenue in June increased to 141.7 billion euros (187.2 billion dollars), up 20.8 percent year on year thanks to a surge in tax revenues as a result of "positive impact of fiscal stimulus and a recovery in economic activity."
"The recorded revenues are broadly in line with the predictions of the last supplementary budget," the ministry said.
Government spending inched up by 7 percent to 189 billion euros (249.7 billion dollars) at the end of June due to compensation paid to local authorities after the removal of the business tax.
France has pledged to freeze public spending over the coming three years and cut an average of 34,000 jobs in public services to trim its budget deficits.
The world's fifth largest economy targets a deficit-to-GDP ratio of 3 percent by 2013 from an expected 8 percent this year.
However, the International Monetary Fund said France was unlikely to achieve its fiscal targets, projecting a budget deficit of 3.9 percent in 2013 for France.
sions is one of the most important reforms Athens should make because it will have an immediate positive impact on the growth of the national economy.
Concerning the prospect of a wave of dismissals of civil servants to slash state expenditures and a budget deficit of 13.6 percent of GDP to less than three percent in three years, Thomsen said restructuring of the Greek public sector should be done with social responsibility.
From September there will be an IMF office in Athens that will systematically collect, analyze and discuss with local authorities data on the Greek economy, he said.
The delegation of EU-IMF experts under Thomsen just finished a two-week visit to Athens this week. After talks with Greek officials, the foreign experts will officially submit a positive first progress report on the implementation of the Greek Stability and Growth Program to European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF headquarters later this month.
Based on that report EU and IMF officials are expected to approve the release of the second tranche of financial aid to Greece this September in the framework of the three-year support package to tackle the economic crisis./.