France will target smaller reductions in its structural budget deficit in 2016 and 2017 than called for by the European Commission in order to preserve economic growth, the government said yesterday.

Officials said the cuts sought by the EU executive on the structural deficit – a measure that strips out the effects of the economic cycle – were too high. The stance could lead to new friction between France and its eurozone peers after Paris won a two-year reprieve on its headline deficit.

“Our strategy is built around our determination to get the economy back up and running in the long term ... to boost growth and jobs,” Finance Minister Michel Sapin told a news briefing.

In a so-called stability programme which eurozone members send to the Commission, the government said it planned to cut its structural deficit by 0.5 per cent of national output this year and each of the next two years.

The European Commission has said France must cut its structural deficit by 0.5 per cent in 2015, 0.8 per cent in 2016 and 0.9 per cent in 2017.

The government had already announced last week its headline public deficit targets, which it plans to bring under the EU’s cap of 3 per cent of GDP in 2017 as expected. On that front it does better for each of the next three years than the latest EU estimates.

While it hopes to do better thanks to a weak euro and oil prices as well as low debt interest rates, the government stuck to its 1 per cent growth forecast for this year and trimmed it slightly to 1.5 per cent for 2016 and 1.5 per cent in 2017.

Officials spelled out €4 billion in extra savings France must make in the 2015 budget to meet EU requests this year.

Most of it will come from lower interest rates on the public debt (€1.2 billion) and a similar amount of extra savings by public administrations. Another will come from cuts in social security and health spending. France also plans an extra €5 billion in savings for 2016.