French finance minister to cut 2024 growth forecast

© Reuters. French Minister for Economy, Finance, Industry and Digital Security Bruno Le Maire delivers a speech during the inauguration of a new hub in France dedicated to the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, at the Google France headquarters in Paris, France, F

PARIS (Reuters) – French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire will announce a lower government growth forecast for 2024 in an interview on TF1 television on Sunday evening, French media reported.

They said that due to slower growth at the end of 2023 and a weak outlook for the first half of this year, the government would have to lower its full-year 1.4% GDP growth forecast and announce new cuts in state spending.

Online paper La Tribune reported that the 2024 forecast will be cut to around 1% and that Le Maire will announce spending cuts of 20 billion euros over two years.

Le Figaro reported that he will lower the forecast to 0.9% and would announce a 10 billion euro savings plan.

The finance ministry declined to comment on the reports. It said on Saturday that Le Maire would speak on the 8 pm TF1 news.

The European Commission on Feb. 15 cut its 2024 GDP growth forecast for France to 0.9% from the 1.2% seen in November, and it cut its forecast for Germany – the EU’s biggest economy – to 0.3% from 0.8%.

Earlier this month, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development cut its 2024 French growth forecast to 0.6% from 0.8% previously.

France’s official statistics agency INSEE on Feb. 7 forecast that the euro zone’s second-biggest economy was set to expand just 0.2% in the first quarter from the previous three months, when it flatlined, and that it would maintain that rate in the second quarter.

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