Mubasher: France’s minister of finance Bruno Le Maire on Monday forecast that his country’s economy was likely to outperform the government’s expectations for 2018.

In 2017, France logged a gross domestic product (GDP) of nearly 2%, the first since 2011.

France “should do better than our forecast of 1.7% in 2018,” Le Maire said in a speech at the Ministry of Finance, indicating that business confidence was at its highest in 10 years.

The rise in business investment is boosting job creations, he added.