AFP, PARIS: The French economy may have grown by nearly two per cent last year, faster than the government’s official forecast, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said yesterday.

“Growth is solid. It could be approaching two per cent in 2017, a first since 2011,” Le Maire said told business leaders.

In 2018, too, “we should do better than our forecast,” he said.

The government’s official forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) growth is 1.7 per cent for both 2017 and 2018. But given buoyant consumer and business sentiment, the final figure for 2017 looks likely to exceed that.

Last week, the Bank of France upgraded its prognosis for growth in 2017 to 1.9 percent, on the back of the strong economic performance in the fourth quarter.

The INSEE national statistics office did the same in December.