Deficit drops below 3% for first time since 2007

France's public deficit shrank to 2.6% of gross domestic product in 2017, the first time it has been below the European Union's 3% limit in a decade, according to the country's national statistics office, Insee.

The figures showed the better-than-expected improvement in France's public finances - until recent days the government was aiming for 2.9% - was due in a large part to strong tax receipts, boosted by economic growth.

They are better even than Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire's recently revised estimates of 2.8% or 2.7%.

"This is good news for the French. This is the proof that the strategy defined by the President of the Republic in terms of recovery of public accounts and growth is the right one," Mr Le Maire said on Monday.

"I attribute it to the growth that is returning because confidence is there, to the decisions we have made. The Court of Auditors in June 2017 estimated that the deficit would be above 3%. We made some tough decisions and that's what got us below 3%. We have kept our promises."

Shortly after he was elected, Mr Macron introduced a series of unpopular belt-tightening measures to cut the stubbornly high public deficit that plagued his predecessors' governments.

The 2017 figure is the first time that the public deficit has been below the EU's 3% limit since 2007. As recently as 2016, public deficit stood at 3.4% of GDP.

France is one of two eurozone countries under the European Commission's excessive-deficit procedure, with only Spain expected to have done worse in 2017, according to forecasts. But these latest results offer hope that the country's economy is moving in the right direction.