Bank of France will give slight upgrade to France's GDP forecasts

The Bank of France will slightly raise its economic growth forecasts for France, said central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau, who added that the country's economy was holding up despite the climate of political uncertainty.

Villeroy de Galhau was commenting after French lawmakers narrowly approved the 2026 social security budget on Tuesday, handing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu a crucial victory but at enormous political and financial cost that could still threaten his fragile government.

Lecornu is battling to get a budget approved before the end of this year, as the government tries to find ways to reduce France's deficits despite opposition over public spending cuts.

Villeroy told CNews TV and Europe 1 radio on Wednesday that the new Bank of France forecasts would be published on December 19.

"We are going to raise our growth forecast slightly for this year and next year. We were at 0.7 percent for this year and 0.9 for next year," he said.

"We are going to raise our growth forecast slightly," he added.

The Bank of France published late on Tuesday its latest business sentiment survey, which showed the euro zone's second-biggest economy was set to grow 0.2% in the fourth quarter.

That would leave France in good stead to achieve, if not surpass, the 0.8% annual growth expected by the government this year as the economy proves relatively resilient in the face of the recurring political instability.

"We are still seeing economic activity, in spite of the uncertainty," Villeroy told CNews TV.

-Sudip Kar-Gupta/Reuters