Paris, France (CNN) -- With controversial pension reform measures nearing a vote Tuesday, the country's finance minister says she doesn't expect ongoing strikes to cause a significant blow to France's growth forecast for this year.
"There are no winners and no losers in this affair. What is important is to take responsibility, to realize that the economy needs to keep going," Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told French radio station Radio Classique Tuesday. "I do not deny that we've had several days where there has clearly been an economic impact. I don't think it's enough to change our growth forecast for the entire year."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance said France's expected increase in gross domestic product for 2010 is 1.6 percent, a level that has held steady since August.
Strikes in France cost the country 200 to 400 million euros ($280 to $560 million) per day, plus "immaterial" and "moral" damages, Lagarde said on Monday to French broadcaster Europe 1.
French workers staged a series of rolling strikes and demonstrations this month and last month against government plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, among other pension reforms. The government says the measures are necessary to save money and shrink the deficit.
Lagarde's estimate covers a period of nearly two weeks, since rolling strikes began on October 12, a finance ministry spokesman told CNN, and takes in the fuel crisis, the deterioration of the country's image and the impact on foreign investment.
A fuel crisis caused by the strike has started to ease, said Yves le Goff, a spokesman for the French oil industry association UFIP.
"None of the fuel depots are blocked anymore, and three of the twelve refineries are no longer on strike," he told CNN.
Drivers had been waiting for hours to refill the tanks of their cars in some parts of the country after strikers shut down all 12 of France's refineries and blocked some fuel depots last week.
The French Senate passed the reforms last week despite the demonstrations, and a final vote reconciling its bill with that of the lower house of parliament is expected within days.
Finance Minister Lagarde has said the country cannot continue to pay its debts -- to retirees and others -- by borrowing at current levels. The government's announced goal is to cut the deficit from 8 percent to 6 percent of gross domestic product by next year, an ambitious goal.
A final vote on the reform is expected Tuesday or Wednesday in both the Senate and National Assembly, according to a spokesman in the Senate.
The lower house of parliament passed the pension reform bill in September, by a vote of 329 to 233.
More than a million people have turned out nationwide to protest the proposal.
Six major French unions have called for further nationwide demonstrations on October 28 and November 6, saying that protests so far show the people are ready to dig in for the long haul.
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