France is committed to reaching its growth and deficit targets for next year, although the centre-right government will not resort to general tax increases, Finance Minister Francois Baroin told French radio on Sunday.
France trimmed its 2012 growth forecast in mid-August to 1.75 percent from 2.25 percent to reflect a weaker economic outlook caused by Europe's sovereign debt crisis.
The government plans 12 billion euros ($16.5 billion) of budget savings over this year and next, including eliminating a series of tax exemptions and imposing new taxes on the very wealthy as it strives to cut its 2012 deficit to 4.6 percent of GDP from a forecast 5.7 percent this year.
Baroin said France was on the right path to reaching these targets and that the government had tailored its budget measures to try to preserve consumers' buying power as much as possible.
Speaking the day after Eurozone finance ministers met in Poland to discuss the bloc's debt crisis and the Greek aid package, Baroin said France was committed to saving the euro.
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