The French economy will rebound faster than expected this year and grow by at least 1 percent, the country's finance minister said Tuesday.

The estimate is an increase on the French government's earlier forecast, published in its budget for this year.

"We built the budget on growth of 0.75 percent in 2010 and the consensus is around 1.5 percent," Christine Lagarde said in an interview with French newspaper Les Echos.

The minister said it is likely the government will revise its budget to take into account the new forecast.

Last year the French economy shrank 2.3 percent, according to the INSEE national statistics agency.

Last month, INSEE forecast a slow emergence from recession in 2010, with growth of between 0.3 percent and 0.4 percent in each of the first two quarters of this year.