PARIS: French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Tuesday there is a very strong possibility that France will miss its deficit target for this year because of the previous government’s lax spending. France has been aiming to bring the deficit down to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, below the 3.0 percent threshold required by eurozone rules. But Philippe told franceinfo radio there was “an extremely high risk” that the government would fail to do so. “Before becoming prime minister, I had my doubts. Now that I am prime minister, I have even greater doubts,” he said. Philippe blamed budget-busting spending by the previous government under Francois Hollande in the run-up to this year’s presidential election which swept Emmanuel Macron into the presidency. He said it “can quite easily happen” in the months before an election that a government “lets a certain amount of tough decisions slide, and then it is up to others to manage this”. Philippe said France’s government auditors, the Cour des Comptes, is to submit a report in July which will determine “whether we are on a path to 2.8 percent or whether we are higher”.