IANS | 29 Apr, 2017
France recorded a slower than expected economic pace of 0.3 per cent
GDP growth in first three months of the year due to sluggish household
spending and falling exports, a report said on Friday.
Rising by
0.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2016, economic activity slowed in
2017 as consumer spending stalled over the period at 0.1 per cent from
0.6 per cent a quarter earlier, Xinhua news agency cited a national
statistics institute Insee report as saying.
Sales abroad
reported a negative trend in the first quarter after falling by 0.7 per
cent compared to a 1.4 per cent rise a quarter earlier, while imports
rose by 0.7 percentage points to 1.5 per cent.
For 2017, the French government expects economic growth to expand by 1.5 per cent from 1.1 per cent in 2016.