France may fail to meet budget deficit targets

France’s national auditor has alerted the government that the country runs a “significant risk” of missing its budget deficit targets for 2013.

According to AFP, the Court of Auditors (Cour des Comptes) warned on Tuesday that President François Hollande might fail in his attempts to help the economy recover by enforcing more tax cuts.

The independent body also cautioned that the country may overshoot its 2014 public deficit target, unless it does more to cut spending.

President of the auditor Didier Migaud at a press conference in Paris said: “There is a significant risk that the public deficit exceeds the latest government forecast for 2013.”

He added: “Given numerous uncertainties and significant risks, meeting the 2014 target is not assured.”

The auditor said there was a risk that tax revenues may come up short by as much as 6 billion euros this year, adding that even the government’s latest plans will fall short of meeting EU limits.

The president of the auditor pointed out that, efforts to cut public spending had to be “pursued and increased in the next three years.”

The annual report gives an overall assessment of the state of public finances and also highlights selected cases of mismanagement and waste.

This comes as Hollande’s government has a poor track record on reducing deficits. In December 2012, France forecast it would meet European rules of a deficit below 3 percent of economic output in 2013, but that target has since slipped to 2015.