Moody's warned Wednesday, March 27, that France was "unlikely" to succeed in bringing its budget deficit down to its target of 2.7% of gross domestic product by 2027, even with extra budget cuts.

The rating agency made the comments after official figures on Tuesday showed that France's budget deficit overshot forecasts in 2023, undermining President Emmanuel Macron's pledge to bring national finances back on track within the next four years.

The public deficit jumped to 5.5% of GDP last year, statistics agency INSEE said, 0.6 points above the government's forecast.

France has announced €10 billion of spending cuts to meet this year's deficit target of 4.4% of GDP. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Tuesday he stood by France's objective of bringing the deficit back below 3% of GDP by 2027.

The "2023 deficit makes it unlikely that the government will succeed in reducing the deficit to 2.7% of GDP by 2027, as outlined in its medium-term fiscal plan presented in September," said Sarah Carlson of Moody's Ratings. "The latest data point to somewhat higher debt for longer than we previously expected," she said.

"The deficit shortfall highlights the inherent risks in the government's medium-term fiscal strategy, which is based on optimistic economic and revenue assumptions and unprecedented restraints on expenditure," Moody's said. France was unlikely to hit this year's target, it added. Even eliminating extraordinary support measures and €10 billion in additional savings was "unlikely to allow the government to meet its fiscal target of 4.4% of GDP this year."

The government is looking to slash even more spending next year. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was expected to address the topic later Wednesday during a televized appearance on the prime-time evening news on TF1 from 8 pm (1900 GMT).