France, Italy unveil plans to further cut their deficits

France and Italy unveiled plans yesterday to trim their deficits more than previously planned in last-minute pitches to get clemency from the European Commission on their 2015 budgets.

The EU’s executive arm has until tomorrow to decide whether to reject France and Italy’s 2015 draft budgets for failing to make sufficiently large improvements in their public finances.

The two countries had so far defied pressure from Brussels and Berlin to rein in their public finances faster over concerns that more belt-tightening could throttle fragile economies.