France is to maintain its current level of defence spending in 2013, it was announced on 28 September. Presented to the French Council of Ministers on 28 September, the French Finance Bill 2013 maintains the same level of spending as in the 2012 budget: EUR31.4 billion (USD40.6 billion). Despite the flat level of overall spending, France is to see a drop of 7% in expenditure on military operations on 2012 figures and EUR5.5 billion of defence equipment orders offset (suspended) from 2012 and 2013. Despite this, the French Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated that neither of these cuts will affect existing contracts, the effectiveness of current operations, or the conclusions of the expected French White Paper on defence.
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