PARIS (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday downgraded its forecast for the French economy in 2013 and 2014, adding that it would be "hard" to reverse the unemployment trend by the end of the year.

The organisation said France's GDP would contract by 0.2 per cent this year and grow by 0.8 per cent in 2014, compared to previous predictions of a 0.1 per cent contraction in 2013 and 0.9 per cent growth next year.