French Finance Minister Thierry Breton estimated Friday that France's economy would achieve a lasting yearly growth between 2.0-2.5 percent from 2006.

"Our economy has solidly entered a growth regime," he told a press conference amid a crisis provoked by the newly approved First Employment Contract (CPE) law which allows a two-year trial period for workers aged under 26, during which companies can fire them for no reason.

Breton confidently said that the French Government foresaw growth stabilizing in the range between 2.0 and 2.5 percent that it had targeted for its budget.

Earlier in the day the French national statistics office, Insee, had reported that the French economy had grown by 1.4 percent in 2005, following its 2.1 percent increase in 2004 and 0.9 percent in 2003.

Breton also affirmed earlier Friday that the French unemployment rate would fall to below 9.0 percent by the end of 2006 with 200,000 new jobs created this year.

He made the announcement before French President Jacques Chirac was to make a televised national address to announce his decision to promulgate the controversial CPE law, which has already sparked three weeks of strikes and protests.

France's Constitutional Council on Thursday constitutionalized the new job law, claiming that it would help ease unemployment among young people.

But opponents argued that the open-ended contract for under 26-year-old workers was a breach of hard-won labor rights and that it would make it more difficult than ever for young people to find long-term jobs.

France has one of Europe's highest youth unemployment rates, with 23 percent of all young jobseekers out of work, in some cases, up to 40 percent in some of the poor high-immigration city suburbs.

Source: Xinhua