France on Friday posted 0.9% expansion in gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter from the previous quarter, slightly beating the initial forecasts.

The country’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said this would put France on track to meet its 6% growth target for 2021.

The 0.9% growth compared with no growth in the first quarter, said the INSEE statistics office. A poll of 29 analysts had given a mean forecast for growth of 0.8%.

"It is an exceptional performance by the French economy," Le Maire told France Inter radio, adding the second quarter performance meant France was on track to meet that 6% annual growth target for 2021.

France, the eurozone’s second-biggest economy, has emerged in recent months from an earlier lockdown to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

The nation’s President Emmanuel Macron ordered France to enter into its third national lockdown on March 31, and the country gradually started to ease restrictions from May onwards, with many shops, restaurants and businesses re-opening.

However, the country is now facing a fourth wave of the coronavirus. Le Maire said France’s overseas territories of La Reunion and Martinique – which are going into new lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus – would get more economic aid.