Crisis-wracked France on Wednesday said it would not be able to get its public deficit under the EU maximum of three percent until 2017, pushing the target back by two years.
Finance Minister Michel Sapin said France's deficit would be 4.4 percent of output in 2014, dropping only slightly to 4.3 percent in 2015. He added the target of getting below the three-percent ceiling would not happen until 2017, instead of 2015 as previously forecast.