25/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - The French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, conceded for the first time on Tuesday that the French budget deficit had 'probably' exceeded 3% of GDP in 2002, while adding that he would not impose any restrictive policy in the face of uncertain growth. Mr Raffarin confirmed that taking into account the present wait-and-see policy linked to the Iraqi crisis, a rate of growth of 2.5% 'on average' for 2003 'presently seems out of reach'.