French PM rushes out 50 billion euro budget savings plan

PARIS (Reuters) - France vowed on Wednesday to honour its Europeans commitments on deficit reduction and rushed out details of its grand plan to curb public spending by 50 billion euros (41 billion pounds) between 2015 and the end of President Francois Hollande's term in 2017. Prime Minister Manual Valls, named in a government reshuffle at the end of March after heavy town hall election losses for the ruling Socialists, outlined where the spending curbs would come and said a civil service wage freeze would remain. Valls said 18 billion euros would come from central government spending, 11 billion from local authorities, 10 billion from healthcare, and 11 billion from broader social welfare spending. Valls' government - revamped by President Francois Hollande after the heavy local election losses to the political right and far-right National Front - sought to erase doubts about Paris's commitment to reduce its public deficit to 3 percent of national output in 2015. He had been expected to detail the spending cuts on April 23, when the government presents its deficit-cutting proposals under the EU stability pact in Brussels. "We cannot continue to live beyond our means and we must break this debt dynamic," Valls said in a declaration to the media following a government meeting. Valls said of Paris's pledges to reduce its deficit: "France as I have said will honour its commitments". Many economists doubt France can meet the 3 percent goal by 2015. The deficit was 4.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013. (Reporting by Andrew Callus and Brian Love; Editing by Andrew Callus)