French economic growth will be at least 2.5 per cent in 2004 and 2005, Finance Minister Mr Nicolas Sarkozy said today.
Mr Sarkozy's remarks in an interview with Europe 1 radio confirmed the government's growth targets, but some analysts have expressed doubt France will achieve 2.5 per cent growth next year.
Asked about growth in 2004, Mr Sarkozy said: "I think that it will be at least 2.5 per cent."
"I can tell you something - that I predict the same growth in 2005 as in 2004. That is the forecast I am working on in the budget I am preparing," he added, referring to the 2005 budget which he is due to unveil at a news conference on September 22nd.
Mr Sarkozy also promised to provide details in the budget of a reduction in France's public deficit. "You will see the French deficit has gone down a lot," he said, without giving any figures.
France's public deficit is set to breach the European Union's ceiling of 3 per cent of gross domestic product in 2004 for the third year in a row.
But Mr Sarkozy, who is set to step down as finance minister if he is elected head of France's ruling conservative party in November, has pledged to reduce the deficit to the limit, or just below it, in 2005.