PARIS, July 31 (Xinhua) -- France would cut its economic growth target for this year from a previous estimate of two percent, Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday.
"We will review growth prospects for 2018," Le Maire told BFMTV news channel.
The minister admitted that 0.2 percent growth registered over the first three months of the year and stagnated performance in the second quarter would decelerate the country's growth for 2018.
"There have been strikes...There has been the increase in the price of oil which affects our competitiveness ... this trade war that also harms our economic activity," he said.
Le Maire declined to disclose the government's new growth target, pledging to "keep accelerating the reforms."
"We must maintain the course, that's how we will have results. Nothing should distract us from our efforts to accelerate growth," he stressed.
Despite disappointing economic data that may throw a spanner into the government's economic reforms drive, Le Maire defended a "right direction, with a clear, simple and realistic economic policy".
