PARIS -The French government will present revised economic growth forecasts by early July, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Wednesday, adding that he did not foresee a recession.
The current forecast sees the economy growing by 4% in 2022.
“There will be a revision of the growth figure. I will do that revision when I present the amending finance law at end June-early July,” Le Maire told France Inter radio.
Data this week showed the French economy unexpectedly shrank in the first quarter as consumers struggled to cope with surging inflation that reached a record-high rate of 5.8 percent over 12 months in May.
Le Maire repeated his view that inflation had reached a “peak” in France and would stay at a high level for several more months before progressively decreasing.
“By end-2023, we should see a progressive decline of inflation. We could have an inflation around 2% towards end-2023,” he said.
It was the responsibility of the European Central Bank to take progressive action to bring down inflation, he said, adding: “If the monetary policy does not change, we will not bring down inflation to a more reasonable level of around 2%.”
Inflation within the 19-country euro zone accelerated to 8.1% this month from 7.4% in April.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Catherine Evans)
