French state deficit set at nearly $61.5 billion

The lower house of the French parliament on Saturday approved 2008 spending plans that foresee a state deficit of nearly 42 billion euros (61.5 billion dollars). The 47.79 billion euros approved by lawmakers in the National Assembly was up just slightly from the figure proposed by government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, and slightly lower than the figure for this year.
The overall deficit - which includes social security, local government budgets and the state budget - will inch downwards to 2.3 percent of GDP for 2008 from 2.4 percent of GDP in 2007, according to the government.