<p>French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared on Wednesday that a win for his Socialist rival Francois Hollande in next week's presidential vote would plunge France into financial crisis.</p>
<p>France beat its public deficit target for 2011, which came in at 5.2 percent of GDP, official statistics institute INSEE said Friday, instead of the 5.7 percent forecast in the budget.</p>
<p>French Finance Minister Francois Baroin confirmed on Tuesday that France had beat its public deficit target for last year, which will come in at 5.3 percent of GDP instead of 5.7 percent.</p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">France's trade deficit with the rest of the world hit a record €69.6 billion ($91.3 billion) last year according to figures given by a minister in a newspaper interview.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Budget minister Valérie Pécresse told parliament on Tuesday that the French budget deficit for 2011 would "probably be less than 5.5 percent."</span></p>
<p>France successfully raised €7.96 billion ($10.23 billion) in new long-term bonds on Thursday despite lower demand, but was forced to pay higher interest amid fears over the country's credit rating.</p>
<p>France's state budget deficit fell by a quarter in October on a 12-month basis, to €99.4 billion from €133.1 billion a year earlier, the budget ministry said on Friday.</p>
<p>France came under fresh pressure Friday to convince turbulent markets it can deliver on debt targets and keep its prized triple-A credit rating after data showed economic growth had skidded to a halt.</p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">President Nicolas Sarkozy promised new measures Wednesday to slash France's public deficit amid fears that France could be the next country after the United States to suffer a top credit-rating downgrade.</span></p>
<p>France is sticking to its target of reducing its public deficit to 4.6 percent of GDP next year and is ready to do everything necessary to achieve that goal, Budget Minister Valerie Pecresse said Tuesday.</p>
<p>France will probably need extra action to cut its public deficit in 2012 and 2013 as falling growth threatens to complicate economic recovery, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>France showed a record trade deficit for May, marking a "very serious" lurch in a trend of weak competitiveness, a trade minister said, in contrast to strong export-led growth in Germany.</p>
