France's central bank today forecast growth of 0.5% in the first quarter of 2010, a slight increase on previous official estimates, as the country's fragile recovery gains strength.
In December, the state statistics agency had predicted a sickly increase in France's gross domestic product of between 0.3-0.4% per quarter in the first half of the year.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's government has passed a budget based on an expectation of 1.4% growth this year after the economy shrank by an estimated 2.25% over the course of 2009.
