The price French consumers pay for gas is set to fall, reflecting the retreat in the price of oil in recent weeks, Budget Minister Eric Woerth said Thursday.
"There's a lag of several months, both on the upside and the downside, as the market isn't organized like the oil market," he said in an interview with the French radio station France Inter.
Woerth also said that the French economy has suffered an "extraordinarily abrupt" slowdown in recent months.
The government's 2009 draft budget is still going through parliament, but if growth turns out to be weaker than expected, Woerth said the government will allow automatic stabilizers to operate, meaning that it would prefer to allow the deficit to rise rather than impose new tax-raising measures.