France ‘asks EU to let it delay submitting budget deficit plan’

France has asked the European Commission to extend beyond September 20 a deadline for submitting a plan to reduce its public deficit to align with Paris’ 2025 draft budget, La Tribune du Dimanche said on Sunday, citing the Finance Ministry.

France could see its budget deficit spiral unexpectedly higher this year and next if extra savings are not found, the finance ministry said in a letter to lawmakers earlier this month, as the euro zone’s second-biggest economy lurches deeper into political crisis.