State Auditor Warns That France Must Cut Spending

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Mr. Hollande and his finance minister, Pierre Moscovici, have already vowed that taxes will not increase further, and that their task over next few years is to cut spending. But they have been vague on how they intend to do it. And so far, Mr. Hollande has repeatedly had to revise his budget deficit targets because he was unable to meet them, even prompting Brussels to acknowledge that France would need more time. Newly gloomy economic indicators released Thursday will not make the task any easier.

The challenge is to rein in public spending in a country with generous welfare and pension benefits and a bloated public sector. France's social spending last year was among the highest in the world, at more than 30 percent of gross domestic product