France's central bank lowers quarterly forecast

France's central bank, Banque de France (BdF), on Wednesday saw 2016 second-quarter growth at 0.2 percent, down one percentage point from a previous estimate on expected falling industrial businesses.

In its business climate survey, the BdF noted that industrial output "continued to grow" in May thanks to buoyant equipment sector. However, automobile and chemical activities reported negative trend.

In May, the capacity utilisation rate gained 0.5 percent to 78.5 percent.

In short term, business leaders expected a slight contraction of industrial sector. Meanwhile, they saw growing services activities after they have reported strong performance last month.

In its biannual macroeconomic outlook, the French central bank projected the growth in France to grow "at least by 1.4 percent" this year as expected bolstered consumer expenditures and more investment would help to create dynamism in the European main powerhouse. Endit