France's centre-right government aims to cut its budget deficit by some 10 billion euros in 2012 while avoiding painful cuts to public spending or broad tax hikes, French paper Le Journal du Dimanche reported on Sunday.
The government, under pressure from markets and the International Monetary Fund to address the shortfall in its finances, will unveil its ideas for slashing the deficit on August 24, or about a month before the 2012 budget is to be announced.
With an election looming next April, President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan will be far less drastic than the 45 billion euros' worth of cuts agreed this week in Italy, one of the latest countries to be targeted in the eurozone debt crisis. Yet the French measures, estimated at between 6.7 and 12 billion euros, according to the paper, are more radical than the 3 billion euros' of cuts and pinches envisioned until recently.
The bulk of new revenue would come from rolling back tax exemptions on housing and France's overseas territories, Le Journal du Dimanche reported, citing sources. Imposing an additional tax on the super-rich was also in the cards.
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