The French government's economic stimulus package will hardly prevent the country from falling into an economic recession, an economist was quoted as saying by local newspaper Les Echos on Friday.

The government had hoped the stimulus could contribute 1 percentage point to France's GDP, but this may not be possible due to too many uncertainties, the newspaper quoted Olivier Bizimana, an expert at Agricultural Credit, as saying.

The stimulus package would only contribute 0.3-0.5 percent to France's GDP, lower than the government's prediction, Bizimana said, noting that the government's move would fail to produce an immediate outcome in most economic sectors.

The French economy was likely to see a worse situation than the official estimation and thus required urgent measures, Bizimana said.

He said France, however, was in a better situation than the United States and most other European countries as its high savings rate would relatively stabilize consumption.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2009)