PARIS, March 12 (Xinhua) -- France's central bank, Banque de France (BdF), announced on Wednesday that it has lowered the gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 0.7 percent for the whole year of 2025.
After the slight downturn in activity observed at the end of 2024, France's GDP is expected to grow at a still moderate rate in the first half of 2025 before gathering pace in the second half of the year, the Banque de France said in its latest macroeconomic interim projections.
"Over 2025 as a whole, activity is expected to slow down but growth should remain positive, at an annual average rate of 0.7 percent (after 1.1 percent in 2024)," it added.
In the BdF's previous estimations published in December 2024, it had predicted that the GDP growth in 2025 would be 1.1 percent in France.
The main downward revision concerns exports, which are expected to be impacted by uncertainty over trade barriers and less buoyant global demand, the BdF noted.
The BdF also confirmed that the French economy is "unlikely" to fall into recession, as the GDP growth forecasts for 2026 and 2027 are 1.2 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.
As for inflation, the French central bank said that the annual average of inflation growth should be 1.3 percent in 2025 (2.3 percent in 2024), due to the decline in electricity prices and the slowdown in services prices.
"Inflation is expected to increase in 2026 and 2027, but remain below 2 percent," it added.
