Reuters reports that the Bank of France said that the French economy will rebound next year as coronavirus restrictions are lifted although not as fast as previously expected.

After contracting about 9% this year, the euro zone's second biggest economy will post growth around 5% in 2021 and 2022 before easing to slightly more than 2% in 2023, the Bank of France forecast.

Prior to the second wave, the bank had forecast in September a contraction of 8.7% this year and growth of 7.4% in 2021 and 3% in 2022.

The French economy would not return to pre-crisis levels of output until mid-2022, it said, whereas that had previously been expected early next year.

Despite the anticipated rebound, the unemployment rate is expected to keep rising to 11% in the first half of 2021 before falling to 9% by the end of 2023.