France is on track to meet its public deficit target of 7.7 per cent of gross domestic product in 2010, helped by a promising result for government finances, budget minister Francois Baroin said today.

He reported a marginally better-than-expected end-of-year estimate for central government finances in 2010, announcing a deficit of €148.8 billion, which he said was €1 billion lower than officials had envisaged in recent weeks.

Regarding the wider public deficit, which comprises welfare and local authority finances along with central government, Mr Baroin said this "comforted" the target of a public deficit worth 7.7 per cent of GDP, versus about 8.5 per cent in 2009.

Reuters