France is set to face the EU's excessive deficit procedure after the Eurostat statistics office said it posted a deficit of 3.1pc of GDP last year, compared with 1.5pc in 2001. France is the third EU member state, after Portugal and Germany, to breach the Stability and Growth Pact's deficit limit of GDP. The Eurostat figure compares with 3.04pc given by the French government, which it rounded down to 3.0pc. For the eurozone as a whole, last year's deficit rose to 2.2pc of GDP from an upwards revised 1.6 in 2001. In the EU, the deficit widened to 1.9pc of GDP from an upwards revised 0.9pc, while public debt fell to 62.5pc from a downwards revised 63.0. The largest deficit ratios were posted by Germany (3.6pc), France, Portugal (2.7pc) and Italy (2.3pc). Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden recorded surpluses in 2002, while Belgium balanced its budget. Ireland, Austria and the UK moved from surplus positions in 2001 into the red last year. //www.fxcentre.com