PARIS, April 9, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - France will try to shave five billion euros off its budget to help keep debt in check, a minister said on Wednesday, however adding that some would be reallocated to defence.

Budget Minister Amelie de Montchalin spoke as Moody's, a ratings agency, was expected to announce its new evaluation of French public debt on Friday.

France has struggled to tame its debt, with the deficit remaining well above the limit of three percent of GDP set for members of the eurozone.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou's government is promising to wrench the deficit down to 5.4 percent of GDP this year, with the goal of getting back under three percent in 2029.

France's debt rose by another 202.7 billion euros to 3.3 trillion euros ($3.55 trillion) last year, accounting for 113 percent of GDP, according to INSEE.

"There will be an extra five billion euros in efforts we will make in the coming weeks... to maintain the path to debt reduction," de Montchalin said, adding that this money would be "cancelled, postponed or redirected".

"Of these five billion, a part will go to essential defence spending" so France had "the means to support Ukraine" against Russia and rearm itself, she added.

Moody's so far has rated France's debt as Aa3 with a stable outlook, while fellow ratings agencies S&P and Fitch put it at AA- with a negative outlook.

The United States has imposed punishing tariffs on its trading partners that have raised the spectre of a worldwide recession.