Paris, June 30 (QNA) - The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has called on France to execute a significant, "deep and sustainable" fiscal reform through reductions in public spending, with the aim of containing rising public debt and ensuring the sustainability of public finances.

France's fiscal deficit has continued to worsen in recent months, while public debt has increased in a steady manner, stabilizing the fiscal position requires structural, long-term measures to reduce expenditure, the OECD said in a study on the French economy published on Tuesday.

According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INSEE), the French deficit reached 5.1 percent of GDP last year, among the highest in the euro area, while public debt rose to more than €3.536 tn in March, equivalent to 117.5 percent of GDP, compared with 115.7 percent at the end of last year.

The OECD cautioned that this trend is conceivable to deteriorate further due to rising interest rates, increased spending linked to population aging, the climate transition, and defense requirements.

It stressed that the goal of stabilizing debt at 122 percent of GDP by 2030 would require, above all, a reduction in public spending, which reached 57.2 percent of GDP in 2025, alongside improved efficiency.

The organization recommended restructuring the tax burden on labor toward less growth-distortive taxes such as consumption or property taxes, in order to support the competitiveness of the French economy.

Thus, the OECD forecast a slowdown in economic growth to 0.7 percent this year and 0.8 percent in 2027, compared with 0.9 percent in 2025. (QNA)