France saw its economy increase 1.5 percent in 2010 after a 0.3-percent growth in the last quarter of 2010, the national statistics bureau Insee said on Tuesday.
The reading was in line with what the government had expected, marking a solid recovery from a historic decline of 2.5 percent in 2009 since World War II.
However, it is slightly down from French Economic Minister Christine Lagarde's estimation of a "big 1.6 percent" of GDP growth. In the first half of 2010, the government had set a target of 1.4 percent growth but later revised it up to at least 1.5 percent.
According to Insee, positive elements contributing to the GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2010 included 0.9-percent improvement in households' consumption expenditure, 0.4 percent in gross fixed capital formation and 0.5 point in foreign trade balance.
Both exports and imports of France slowed down in the last quarter, but exports still held a positive figure of 0.8 percent compared with the same period of 2009, down from 2.6 percent recorded in the third quarter, while imports fell 1.2 percent after a 3.9-percent growth a quarter before.
Since last October, massive demonstrations and protests against controversial pension reform have seriously battered the energy and manufacturing sectors.
The French government expected a growth rate of 2.0 percent in GDP for 2011, and 2.5 percent between 2012 and 2014.