Berlin - The finance ministers of Europe's two largest economies, France and Germany, announced Monday that they would work towards meeting the European Union's target of budget deficits under 3 per cent of GDP by 2013. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was meeting with her German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin.
On November 11 the European Commission proposed that the 13 EU countries with large deficits - most built up as a result of the global financial crisis - should get them below 3 per cent of gross domestic product by 2014 at the latest.
The commission also recently forecast that the average budget deficit in the eurozone would be 6.4 per cent of GDP in 2009.
However Lagarde said that France would only meet the target if the "cyclical conditions allow it."
German Bundesbank Presidetn Axel Weber said it was possible Germany would emerge from deficit sooner than the targeted date.
Schaeuble confirmed that Germany's total new borrowings this year would be some 10 billion euros (15 billion dollars) less than the 49.1 billion-figure previously announced.
