New lockdown shouldn't have big impact on French growth forecast -Villeroy

Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Thursday that he does not expect new COVID-19 restrictions to have a significant impact on the bank's 5.5% growth forecast for 2021 if the measures do not last beyond early May. President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a third wave of COVID-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Thursday that he does not expect new COVID-19 restrictions to have a significant impact on the bank's 5.5% growth forecast for 2021 if the measures do not last beyond early May.

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a third wave of COVID-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals. With the death toll nearing 100,000, intensive care units in the hardest-hit regions at breaking point and a slower-than-planned vaccine rollout, Macron was forced to abandon his goal of keeping the country open to protect the economy.

"If these additional restrictions do not last beyond the beginning of May, they should not result, it is our analysis, in a very significant review of our forecast", Villeroy told a conference on start-ups in Paris. The French central bank said last month that the euro zone's second-biggest economy was set to grow 5.5% this year.

Villeroy said the central bank would assess the growth impact of the new measures in its monthly business climate survey of 8,500 companies, which is to be published on April 13.