A week of rioting across France has already caused more than $1.1 billion in damage to the country's businesses.
The Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF), the country's main employer's federation, said the repair bills would total over €1 billion.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said rioters had attacked 400 bank branches and 500 small shops. On Tuesday he estimated that a total of 1,000 stores had been looted.
But Le Maire insisted that the unrest “will not have a deep impact on French growth,” and that the government was supporting affected businesses.
On Monday, MEDEF president Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux said the organisation had recorded the lootings of 300 banks, 250 street kiosks and 200 larger shops.
"It is too early to give you the exact figures yet, but we're talking here over one billion euros, not including tourist industry losses," Roux de Bezieux said.
MEDEF has more than 750,000 affiliated companies, 90 percent of which are small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs) with fewer than 50 employees.
But credit ratings agency DBRS Morningstar said on Tuesday that it expected insurance claims would total far less than the figure given by the business leader
“We believe total insured losses for the French insurance industry should remain well below the €1 billion mark,” the agency said. “Business interruption losses resulting from vandalism, looting and potential curfews are unlikely to be covered by the French state.”
Rioting began on Tuesday June 27 after police shot dead 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, a takeaway delivery driver of Algerian descent, after pulling him over in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre.
The unrest has since spread across the country to cities including Lyon and Marseille, and even to neighboring Belgium and Switzerland.
French President Emmanuel Macron has drawn ridicule and anger for blaming the violence on video games and threatening to cut off internet access to affected zones.
Macron's government had already provoked nationwide protests — which often descended into battles with riot police — through its insistence on pushing through an increase in the state pension age from 62 to 64 — despite the country's parliament voting against the reform. Despite mass protests across the country, Macron signed the reform into law on April 15.