France's gross domestic product is expected to grow by 0.8 percent on better business sentiment in the first quarter of 2011, the Bank of France said Tuesday.
The French Central Bank's forecasts were much higher than those issued by the National Statistics Bureau Insee, which expects the first quarter to post a mere 0.3 per cent growth.
They are also higher than the reading of the first quarter of 2009 when the country was struggling to exit the economic crisis.
According to the Central Bank's monthly business sentiment report, both sentiment indicators of industry and service sectors rose in January.
For the last quarter of 2010, the Central Bank presented 0.6-perc ent growth as the French Government targeted 1.5 per cent growth for the whole year, and expected national output to continue to grow by 2.0 per cent in 2011.
However, although Government Officials have repeatedly struck an upbeat note about the economy, most economists hold a less optimistic view, as the euro zone's second largest economy still needs to tighten its belt and cut its soaring public deficit.