France's new budget minister, Eric Woerth, said Tuesday he sees growth in 2007 at 2.25% to 2.5%.
He had issued a "prudent" forecast because "it is better to have good news after than bad news," he said on LCI television.
Slow growth has been a feature of France's economic slump that newly elected President Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to fix.
The European Union's executive arm said this month that the euro zone should grow 2.6% this year while the entire EU would grow 2.9%.