France likely to lower 2015 spending cuts target - Sapin to AFP

PARIS (Reuters) - France will probably have to scale back its budget savings plans for next year due to low inflation, its finance minister said in an interview published on Tuesday, ruling out extra spending restraint.

The government had hoped to wring 21 billion euros (16.7 billion pounds) of savings from the budget next year as part of a drive to bring public spending down by 50 billion euros over the next three years.

The aim is get growth in public spending down to the level of inflation, which it had forecast would average 1.5 percent next year.

But in July inflation was running at just 0.6 percent year-on-year, far below the French government's estimate of 1.2 percent for this year.

"We cannot have the same targets with inflation getting so low," Finance Minister Michel Sapin told French news agency Agence France Presse in response to a question about whether the 2015 target would be kept.

Weaker-than-expected inflation means spending should be restrained even more next year to keep the savings drive on track, but the government is loath to do that as the economy stagnates.

"Increasing savings does not seem well-adapted to this situation," Sapin said.

Any decrease in the 2015 budget savings target is likely to make it all but impossible for the government to achieve its deficit-cutting promises.

Sapin, who will present the 2015 budget at the end of the month, strongly hinted last month that weaker-than-expected growth would make it impossible for France to respect an EU-agreed deficit target next year of three percent of economic output.

(Reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey, writing by Leigh Thomas, editing by Geert De Clercq/Ruth Pitchford)