France Defies EU Partners with ‘No Austerity’ Budget

France laid down the gauntlet to EU partners on Wednesday with a 2015 budget setting out how it would bring its borrowing back to within EU limits two years later than promised, a retreat it blamed on a fragile economy. “We have taken the decision to adapt the pace of deficit reduction to the economic situation of the country,” Finance Minister Michel Sapin told a news conference. “Our economic policy is not changing, but the deficit will be reduced more slowly than planned due to...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - mercredi 1^er octobre 2014