BRUSSELS (AFP) — The government must rein its public deficit to meet an EU limit by the end of the fiscal year ending in March 2010, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
The European Union's executive arm gave London a formal warning last month that the shortfall between revenues and expenditures was set to breach EU rules during the year ending March 2009.
EU member states are required to keep their public deficits to less than 3.0 percent of gross domestic output.
"Having carefully examined the United Kingdom's economic and budgetary prospects, the commission considers that the breach of the reference value ... qualifies as an excessive deficit," EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.
"We expect the UK authorities to adopt the measures necessary to correct the situation at the latest by 2009/10," he added.
EU finance ministers are due to consider fixing the deadline at a meeting in Brussels on July 8.
The EU pressure on Britain's finances has cast a cloud over London's management of public finances under the leadership of increasingly embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a former finance minister.
Figures provided by Britain in March suggested the deficit would hit 3.2 percent, while the commission has forecast 3.3 percent if London does not change its policies.
The commission warned last month that tax cuts announced in May would add further strain on the public finances, swelling the deficit to 3.5 percent.
Although Britain faces pressure from other EU countries to rein in its deficit, it does not face the prospect of fines if it does not, as countries using the euro do when they find themselves in the same situation.
Britain is a member of the European Union but not the eurozone.
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