French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Friday that the government's newly unveiled spending plans for 2013 are a "combat budget" that will tackle debt and bring much needed growth to the nation.

About 30 billion euros ($39 billion) in savings are needed to reach President Francois Hollande's ambitious target of lowering the deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by the end of 2013, from a forecast of 4.5% this year.

A third of the savings will come from cuts to public spending, the president's office said, while an additional 10 billion euros will come from a tax on companies.

The remainder will be raised through tax increases on high-earning individuals, including a 75% levy on incomes higher than 1 million euros ($1.26 million) and a new 45% tax bracket affecting 6.2 million households.

However, nine out of 10 earners will not see income tax increases, the government said.

The 2013 budget is viewed as a test of confidence for Hollande, who was elected in May on a pro-growth and anti-austerity platform, and his Socialist government.

Addressing reporters after a meeting of ministers Friday morning, Ayrault sought to stress that the tough measures were necessary -- and that most of the burden would fall on those best able to pay.

"It's a combat budget to fight against a debt that only continues to increase and that rests on the shoulders of French taxpayers and generations to come," he said, adding that it was "a courageous and responsible budget."

Ayrault said the French national debt had increased from 64% of GDP to more than 90% in five years -- and that's why the government's deficit reduction target must be met. "The 3% is a realistic objective, it is an indispensable objective," he said.

Ayrault also said that the budget, while cutting public spending, is one "which made choices" in favor of lower-wage earners.

"The working and middle classes have been exempted from the revenue tax. Nine households out of 10 ... will not be taxed further, this is the guarantee that we are giving to the French people," he said.

Speaking this month in front of the Cour des Comptes, a government financial body, Hollande said the reduction of public debt was going to be "the most important effort in 30 years."

However, some economists, including those at Citigroup, anticipate that the government's deficit reduction target will be missed, with Citi forecasting a deficit for the year of 3.7% of GDP.

Political analyst Christian Malard, of broadcaster France 3, told CNN that the French public was also skeptical about the government's ability to reduce the deficit without raising taxes more widely.

"A majority of the French know that 2013 is going to be for them a very terrible year," he said, citing tax hikes, continued high unemployment and difficult times for entrepreneurs as among the challenges they face.

"The French are very aware of the fact that everyone will have to pay."

The government's move to raise an extra 10 billion euros from taxes on businesses could further stifle growth and force companies to move overseas, Malard said.

Many people in France now fear that France could join other southern European nations such as Spain, Greece and Italy, whose ailing economies have prompted wider fears about the stability of the eurozone group of nations, he added.

As the fifth-largest economy in the world and the second-largest in Europe, France is a major concern to global investors. It's also the United States' third-largest trading partner in Europe, after Germany and the United Kingdom, the U.S. State Department says.

Analysts had predicted that Hollande would have to present a harsher budget than first expected because of fears that otherwise, France's cost of borrowing will spike, and any savings made will have to be spent on increased interest payments.