The French economy is expected to grow by 5.5 percent this year

Government debt should also increase.

The French economy is expected to grow by 5.5% this year after an expected decline of 9% last year. This was stated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which published a report following Article IV consultations. The fund said it expects the economy to perform below the pre-corona crisis in the medium term. It added that the risk to the economic outlook is still high, with the greatest impact on the development of a new coronavirus pandemic. In addition, the IMF expects the unemployment rate to rise, which should exceed 10%. As the fund said, unemployment is likely to rise to 10.4% from 8.7 percent last year. Government debt should also increase. The fund estimates that France's debt will reach 117.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, compared to 115.3% of GDP last year. On the contrary, the budget deficit should fall below 10 percent. Compared to last year's projected deficit of 10.6% of GDP, the IMF expects it to decline to 7.7% of GDP this year.