PARIS: France's central bank on Thursday forecast growth of 0.4 percent for the first quarter of 2018, underlining the tentative rebound of the eurozone's second-biggest economy under President Emmanuel Macron.
The estimate from the Banque de France is the latest healthy indicator for an economy that has long been a laggard in Europe.
On Tuesday, European Union data showed France hitting its fastest growth rate in six years in 2017, expanding by 1.9 percent, driven largely by investment.
That helped feed a surge in the wider eurozone last year to 2.5 percent growth, on par with levels last seen before the financial crisis a decade ago.
Macron, a 40-year-old former investment banker, has made shaking up the French economy a priority since he was elected in May.
In his first budget, the business-friendly centrist has balanced tax cuts for businesses and wealthy investors with spending cuts aimed at bringing down a high deficit.
Paris is expected to report a public deficit equivalent to 2.9 percent of GDP in 2017, below the EU limit of 3.0 percent for the first time in 10 years.
But France's public finance watchdog on Wednesday said Macron's government needed to make use of improving economic conditions to tackle chronic government overspending.
The Banque de France figure came in slightly below that of France's INSEE statistics agency, which has forecast growth of 0.5 in the first quarter.
The government's current forecast is for 1.7 percent growth in 2018, but it has signalled that figure could go up.
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