France’s minority government set to present make-or-break austerity budget

The French government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Thursday is set to deliver its 2025 budget, which is viewed as key to the new government's survival. A spiralling fiscal deficit requires spending cuts and tax hikes, measures that are unpopular with parties on the left and right, increasing the pressure on France's weak centrist coalition.

France's government is to deliver its 2025 budget on Thursday with plans for 60 billion euros ($65.68 billion) worth of tax hikes and spending cuts to tackle a spiralling fiscal deficit.

Prime Minister Michel Barnier's new government is under increasing pressure from financial markets and France's European Union partners to take action after tax revenues fell far short of expectations this year and spending exceeded them.

But the budget squeeze, equivalent to two points of national output, has to be carefully calibrated to placate opposition parties, who could not only veto the budget bill but also band together and topple the government with a no-confidence motion.

Lacking a majority by a sizeable margin, Barnier and his allies in President Emmanuel Macron's camp will have little choice but to accept numerous concessions to get the budget bill passed, which is unlikely before mid to late December.

(Reuters)


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