France on track to meet 0.8 percent growth target: minister

PARIS (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici on Sunday said the government believed it could reach its 2013 economic growth target of 0.8 percent.

Moscovici told France 2 television that he is maintaining the target ahead of the publication of the European Commission's euro-zone economy forecasts, expected on February 22.

"We will have discussions," Moscovici said. "If we will need to adapt, we will adapt. But I am confident about the French economy."

Moscovici also said that although the euro has stabilised, it may have become too strong.

stabilized "The euro is stable, it is strong, perhaps too strong in some respects," he said.

The euro has been rising against the currencies of major trading partners, driven partly by relief that the euro project seems less fragile, but has prompted concerns about exports from euro-zone countries.

Moscovici said the government would disclose "within two to three weeks" a redrafted version of its proposal to tax the wealthy, which he said it would be imposed on households rather than individuals.

In a setback to the government's push to make the rich contribute more to cutting the public deficit, France's Constitutional Council in December rejected a plan to hit incomes over 1 million euros ($1.3 million) with a 75 percent tax rate.

The council said the tax was unfair as it would hit married couples where only one partner earned above a million euros but would not affect couples where each earned just under a million.

(Reporting by Elena Berton and Sophie Louet; editing by Erica Billingham and Keiron Henderson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-track-meet-0-8-percent-growth-target-134447789--business.html

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