French public debt reached 85.8% of the country's gross domestic product at the end of last year, the country's statistics bureau Insee said Friday, underscoring the problems European countries are encountering to re-establish the health of their public finances.

The country added another EUR24.8 billion to its debt stockpile in the last six months of 2011, pushing it to EUR1.717 billion, Insee said.

At the beginning of the acute phase of the financial crisis, in the third quarter of 2008, France's public debt was still standing at 67% of GDP.

-By Gabriele Parussini, Dow Jones Newswire,; +33 1 4017 1740;

gabriele.parussini@dowjones.com

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