French central bank estimates 0.4 GDP growth in Q1

PARIS, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- France's central bank, Banque de France (BdF), on Thursday estimated the economy will grow by 0.4 percent from January to March this year due to improvement of industrial and services businesses.

In its monthly economic report, the bank noted that industrial output continued to increase, but at a slightly slower pace in January compared with a month earlier.

Production rose particularly in aeronautics, computer and electronic products while output of pharmaceuticals posted a slight decline in January.

According to the bank's data, the capacity utilization rate slowed to 80.6 percent after it had reached a nine-year high of 81.6 percent in December.

Based on business leader sentiment, the BdF expected industrial sector to increase further this month.

More temporary work, transport, accommodation and management consultancy activities drove up the services sector last month, with the same pace of growth estimated in February.

The business sentiment indicator in industry lost two points to 105 while that of services stood at 103 over the period, the highest level seen since May 2011.

For the whole of 2018, the government expects growth at 1.7 percent. Enditem