PARIS, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- France would break a promise to keep the European Union's budget deficit ceiling next year after President Emmanuel Macron unveiled 10 billion euros (11.33 billion U.S dollars) worth of tax cuts and spending increases to quell public anger at weak purchasing power and soaring living costs, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Monday.

In an interview with French business newspaper Les Echos, Philippe expected the deficit to stand at 3.2 percent in 2019, above an initial target of 2.9 percent percent.

"We are assuming a slight increase in the deficit due to the acceleration of the tax cut. But we are paying attention to the public accounts, and we are taking a series of measures..." he said.

In order to rein in the country's budget gap, the prime minister said the government would squeeze public spending by between 1 and 1. 5 billion euros.

Besides, Macron's executive staff would also seek to generate 1.8 billion euros via an increase in tax receipts of big companies by limiting the reduction in the corporate income tax rate to enterprises with a turnover of less than 250 million euros next year, Philippe added.

Created on social media, the "Yellow vests" movement which got its name from the high visibility vests drivers keep in their cars, started on Nov.17 and lured people of all ages and backgrounds.

With no leader, it had turned into a bigger movement denouncing a squeeze on household spending, and forcing Macron to reconsider one of his major reforms.

The French president offered an increase in minimum wages and tax breaks a week ago. He also decided tax-free status of overtime hour, cut taxes for pensioners and end-of-year bonus offered to workers, to abate the anger of thousands of people who opposed his economic policy and end waves of streets protests that had put the country's economy in tatters.

Violent demonstrations in France over the last month was estimated to cost 0.1 percent of French economic growth for the final quarter, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in a recent interview.

Since the movement began, domestic retailers had lost about 1 billion euros. The hotel sector witnessed a decline in bookings by 15 to 20 percent. In addition, the food sector could report 13-billion-euro loss due to the blockage of transport and shopping centers, according to official data. (1 euro = 1.133 U.S. dollars) Enditem

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