French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac on Wednesday admitted that narrowing public deficit would be "quite hard," but efforts would be made to attain the target of 3 percent of GDP.

"Everyone knows that it is difficult to achieve nominal deficits target when the economy is so unfavorable," the minister told France Inter radio.

"The probability to meet this objective has declined gradually as growth weakened not only in France but ... in the euro area and even in the world. However, we remain there," he added.

A day before, French audit office, La Cour des Comptes estimated that the European second largest economy would miss its deficit target this year as morose economic climate would hamper the Socialists' efforts to restore the public finances.

The governemnt eyes to lower budget deficit by 1.5 percent to 3 percent this year and to accelerate growth by 0.5 percentage point to 0.8 percent.

But critics said that with high unemployment and additional billions of euros of taxes on households and businesses, the bounce was unlikely to be maintained.