The anti-government protests convulsing France will slow growth to close to a standstill in the final quarter, the central bank said, complicating President Emmanuel Macron's task of finding concessions to placate the “yellow vest” movement.

The Bank of France forecast the euro zone's number two economy would eke out growth of only 0.2 percent in the quarter from the previous three months, down from 0.4 percent in a previous estimate.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire declined to give an estimate for 2018 growth but forecast the nationwide tumult would trim 0.1 percent of a point off of national output. His deputy projected growth would round out “closer to 1.5 percent”.