12/03/2018 (Agence Europe) – On Friday 9 March, the EU's statistical unit, Eurostat, approved the approach of its French counterpart (INSEE) enabling the equal allocation to the French budgets for 2017 and 2018 of the accounting treatment of the reimbursement by the French state to the country's businesses of an envelope of €10 billion after the approval of a national tax of 3% on dividends that was created in 2012. This decision was the main obstacle that threatened the return of the French public deficit in nominal terms to below 3% of GDP in 2017, and thus the end of the excessive deficit procedure that has been open since April 2009. The official public debt and deficit figures for the member states will be published on Monday 26 March. Eurostat's decision can be consulted at: http://bit.ly/2DjgHhD (MB)