Off the wire
• Ukraine, Belarus agree to complete border demarcation soon  • Coca-Cola north China production base put into operation  • SOEs have potential in mass entrepreneurship, innovation: Premier  • Feature: Carbon offset project boosts conservation of Kenya's mangrove forests  • Spotlight: EU signals to take tough stance in Brexit talks  • Over 1 mln displaced in DR Congo amid violence: OCHA  • DPRK condemns U.S. test-launch of ICBM as simulated strike on Pyongyang  • Two suspects detained in Spain admit they were at scene of Brussels attack  • Germany to revoke airline pilots "rule of two"  • Eurozone inflation picks up in April  
You are here: 　 Home

France's first-quarter growth at 0.3 pct: Insee

Xinhua, April 28, 2017 Adjust font size:

France recorded a slower than expected economic pace of 0.3 percent GDP growth in first three months of the year due to sluggish household spending and falling exports, a report said Friday.

Rising by 0.5 percent in the last quarter of 2016, economic activity slowed at the start of this year as consumer spending stalled over the period at 0.1 percent from 0.6 percent a quarter earlier, national statistics institute Insee said in the report.

Sales abroad reported a negative trend in the first quarter after falling by 0.7 percent compared to a 1.4-percent rise a quarter earlier, while imports rose by 0.7 percentage points to 1.5 percent.

Consequently, "foreign trade balance weighed down on GDP growth: -0.7 points after +0.2 points in the previous quarter," said the report.

For 2017, the French government expects economic growth to expand by 1.5 percent from 1.1 percent a year earlier. Endi