French economy to keep growing in 2018 — Official
PARIS: France’s return to economic growth should remain on course in 2018, in step with its European neighbours, the national statistics agency said.
Citing a ‘buoyant’ world environment, INSEE revised its growth estimate for 2017 upward from 1.8 per cent to 1.9 per cent.
“Growth has set in since the end of 2016 at a steady rate of around 0.5 per cent per quarter,” INSEE official Julien Pouget told a news conference, predicting that the upward trend would last through mid-2018.
The European Central Bank last week forecast growth for the 19member eurozone at 2.3 per cent for next year, a leap from its September estimate of 1.8 per cent.
French GDP growth is driven by a sharply improved business climate, reducing dependence on household consumption.
But it is well shy of EU powerhouse Germany’s forecast by the ECB at 2.6 per cent for this year and 2.5 per cent in 2018.
In especially good news for France’s centrist President Emmanuel Macron, French unemployment is expected to stabilise at around 9.4 per cent by mid-2018, its lowest level since early 2012.
Joblessness was a constant thorn in the side for Macron’s Socialist predecessor Francois Hollande, who failed to move the needle much below 10 per cent during his single term in power.
Macron, elected in May, promised during his campaign to bring the rate down to seven per cent by the end of his term in 2022. — AFP