France revises growth forecast down to 0.1 per cent

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said that France’s growth is expected to be just 0.1 per cent this year, lowering the government’s earlier forecast of 0.8 per cent and accepting predictions by the European Commission and other experts.

Reuters/Jean-Marc Loos

Speaking to Europe 1 radio on Sunday, Moscovici admitted that France will not reach the 0.8 per cent growth rate that the government based this year’s budget on.

Conceding that the European Commission and the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) were right to forecast just 0.1 per cent growth in 2013, he predicted 1.2 per cent growth in 2014 and return to “cruising speed” of 2.0 per cent in 2015.

With unemployment soaring and living standards falling, President François Hollande last month admitted that France will not meet its debt and deficit targets and last week Moscivici said he “feared” growth would be at the lower level.