Growth in France is picking up slowly and should be a little over 1.0 percent this year and 1.5 percent in 2016, but it remains too slow to reduce the jobless total, President Francois Hollande said Monday.

"Growth is increasing, not enough yet, but we will definitely have a little more than 1 percent growth this year," Hollande told a press conference, adding: "It is still insufficient to bring down unemployment this year."