The French
government's renewed commitment to bring its budget deficit in line with an EU
limit is good not only for France but for upcoming euro zone discussions on
budgets, ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said on Sunday.
The French government
has committed to stick to plans to cut the deficit to 3 percent of economic
output this year despite overspending this year by its predecessor.
"One of
the constraints facing the government is to keep its commitments on the budget
and in particular on the three percent. This is something that we welcome in
part because of the consequences for the rest of Europe," Coeure said.
Speaking at
an economics conference in southern France, Coeure said that France's respect
for the rules would help discussions the government hopes to launch soon about
common budget measures in the euro zone.
"You
can't tell others what to do if you don't respect the rules yourself,"
Coeure said.
Speaking at
the same conference, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that the
government could cut spending and taxes at the same time.
"It's
because the ECB's monetary policy is accommodative that we must without delay
launch the transformation of our economy," Le Maire said.
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