Macron targets French welfare spending as deficit pressure rises

The government has been under pressure from Brussels and the International Monetary Fund to detail plans to rein in public spending. France is among the global frontrunners in the spending stakes.

Philippe said the government is particularly keen on reducing spending on what he described as ineffective policies such as housing or subsidised jobs.

He said that housing allowances, family welfare benefits and pension payouts would increase by only 0.3 percent in 2019 and 2020. That is far less than the 1.5 percent average inflation rate economists polled by Reuters expect next year and the 1.8 percent expected in 2020.

Meanwhile, the government would consider reducing unemployment benefits over time, Philippe said.

Criticisms of Macron's aloof leadership style and a summer scandal over his top body guard beating May Day protesters helped to push his approval ratings to a record low of only 34 percent in August, according to an Ifop poll for Le Journal du Dimanche.

Philippe also responded to criticism saying that the government's policies were designed to reward workers and discourage unmeasured increases in welfare handouts.

Philippe said that tax on overtime pay would be axed from September 2019 on top of plans do away with worker contributions to financing health and unemployment benefits while also getting rid of housing tax.

Efforts to shrink France's vast public sector would be maintained, he added, with plans to cut 4,500 state jobs in 2019 and more than 10,000 in 2020.

"This is going to be a real bloodbath for the state and the public services," far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon told reporters in response to Philippe's comments.