New French finance minister eyes 2025 deficit slightly above 5%

PARIS (Reuters) - France's delayed 2025 budget bill will target a deficit of "slightly above 5%" in order to protect growth, the country's new finance minister said in a newspaper interview.

Eric Lombard, previously head of Caisse des Depots, the investment arm of the French government, will be tasked with steering through parliament a budget after the previous government lost a no-confidence vote in early December amid a backlash against its belt-tightening proposals.

Lombard's deficit objective for next year is higher than the 5% targeted by the last government. But it would still represent a drop from this year when the deficit is expected to widen to above 6% of gross domestic product.

"We need to amend this (budget) bill to establish a good budget. With a deficit slightly above 5% so as to protect growth," Lombard told La Tribune Dimanche.

"To protect growth, the reduction of the deficit must come more through reductions in public spending than through taxation," he said, adding that any tax increases should be "very limited".

He said he would consult all political parties in the French parliament and that the discussions would contribute to the government's budget proposals.

Lombard was named last Monday as part of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou's government.

Bayrou, who, like predecessor Michel Barnier, lacks a working majority in parliament, has said he aims to have a budget ready by mid-February.

(Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Alison Williams)

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