The French government is too optimistic about the outlook for its public finances this year, overestimating growth and planned budget savings, France's public audit office said.

President Macron's government lifted its 2019 public deficit target in December to 3.2% of economic output, overshooting the European Union's 3-percent limit. It raised the target after Macron announced an 11 billion euro (?9.7 billion) package of concessions to anti-government protestors who had led some of the worst street violence in Paris since the 1968 student demos.

The audit office said that the deficit target was built on an outdated growth forecast of 1.7% which did not take into account recent weak economic data. It said the growth outlook also failed to reflect the impact of increased savings the government is hoping to come up with to offset the cost of the concessions package.

The audit office urged the government to revise its growth outlook "as soon as possible" and said that spending cuts needed to be stepped up in order to push ahead with planned tax cuts.