Villeneuve-la-Garenne (France) (AFP)
The government's objective remains 5% GDP growth in 2021, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told AFP on Friday, after the sharp downward revision of this indicator in the first quarter by INSEE .
Qualifying this reassessment of "mechanical revision (...) linked firstly to a less severe recession than expected in 2020", Mr. Le Maire assured that "this does not change our ambition (...) to have 5% growth in 2021 ", on the sidelines of a company visit to Villeneuve-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine).
According to INSEE, the French gross domestic product (GDP) finally fell by 0.1% in the first quarter, a sharp revision of the previous estimate of growth of 0.4%.
INSEE also reviewed the extent of the recession in the French economy in 2020: GDP finally fell by 8%, against 8.2% previously estimated.
This proves, according to Bruno Le Maire, that "we have well protected the French economy in 2020, thanks to all the measures that we have put in place (...) and we have in particular, I would like to stress this, Very well protected the purchasing power of households, since it increased by 0.4% in 2020 ".
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While calling to "keep his cool and his constancy, not to give in to one figure or another, to an indicator or to another which may fall over the days", Mr. Le Maire assured that "the indicators are all well oriented "currently.
"Investment is well oriented, business confidence has recovered a lot, household confidence is also gradually recovering, so we have everything to succeed in 2021," he added.
The minister also reiterated "the strategic objective that I have set since the start of the crisis, to return in the first quarter of 2022 to the level of economic development that we had before the crisis in 2019."
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