France saw its budget deficit widening to 13.4 billion euros (18.59 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of January from 9.2 billion euros (12.76 billion dollars) in the same month a year earlier, despite government efforts to narrow down the gap, the Budget Ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry tried to play down the significance of the increase, saying that "only over the first month of the year, comparison with last year is insignificant".
In an official statement, it attributed the balance increase first to "the award of a 1.4-billion-euro (1.94-billion-dollar) new slice of loan granted to Greece," and secondly, to "early implementation this year of account mechanisms for financial aid" to local governments.
The second component of the margin aimed at giving local authorities "a guarantee of cash resources," the ministry added.
French government revenue quickened to 20.5 billion euros (28.44 billion dollars), inched up by 2.5 percent as net tax revenues grew from one year to another, but "this positive progress is however still very insignificant in this early time," according to the ministry.
At the end of January, the value of public spending stood at 26.3 billion euros (36.49 billion dollars) from 27.3 billion euros (37.88 billion dollars) in the previous year.
The second largest eurozone economy recorded a budget deficit of 148.8 billion euros (206.49 billion dollars) over the whole year of 2010, slightly down from an initial forecast of 149.8 billion euros (207.88 billion dollars).
It hopes to cut budget deficit from an expected 6 percent of national gross domestic product this year to 3 percent in 2013./.