The French government expects GDP to drop six percent this year because of lost business during the coronavirus lockdown, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday while announcing a relief plan would be more than doubled to 100 billion euros ($109 billion).

The spending will sharply increase the national budget deficit to 7.6 percent of GDP for 2020 - well beyond the eurozone's limit of three percent - and push up public debt to 112 percent of GDP from the 99 percent forecast earlier this year, Le Maire told financial daily Les Echos.