France GDP Growth Confirmed At 0.1%

(RTTNews) - The French economy recovered in the first quarter, as initially estimated, the statistical office INSEE reported Wednesday.

Gross domestic product grew 0.1 percent from the fourth quarter, when the economy shrank 0.1 percent. The rate matched the estimate published on April 30.

On the expenditure side of GDP, household consumption declined 0.2 percent, which was pulled down in particular by the drop in spending on transport equipment. Meanwhile, government spending grew 0.2 percent.

At the same time, gross fixed capital formation remained flat for the second straight time.

Foreign trade kept contributing negatively to GDP growth in the first quarter. Exports decreased sharply by 1.8 percent on weaker demand for transport equipment and chemical products. By contrast, imports climbed 0.5 percent, boosted by energy and other industrial products.

Finally, the contribution of changes in inventories to GDP growth was clearly positive by 1.0 point.

In April, household consumption rebounded due to the increase in consumption of food and engineered goods. Household spending rose 0.3 percent, in contrast to the 1.1 percent decrease in March.

Food consumption advanced 2.1 percent and engineered goods consumption gained 0.7 percent. By contrast, energy consumption decreased 3.6 percent.

Another data today showed that producer prices in France declined for the seventeenth straight month in April. Producer prices decreased 0.8 percent year-on-year, following a 0.2 percent drop in March. At the same time, monthly fall in producer prices deepened to 4.3 percent from 0.5 percent.

In the first quarter, payroll employment dropped 0.1 percent or 20,900 from the previous quarter. This followed a decrease of 0.4 percent or -98,600 in the fourth quarter.