The French economy rebounded in the first quarter, confirming earlier estimates, according to a report released on Wednesday by the country’s statistics agency INSEE.
Gross domestic product rose by 0.1% compared to the previous quarter, during which the economy had contracted by 0.1%, Reuters reports.
This growth rate aligns with the preliminary estimate issued on 30th April.
In terms of GDP components, household consumption fell by 0.2%, mainly due to reduced spending on transport equipment. In contrast, government expenditure increased by 0.2%.
At the same time, gross fixed capital formation remained unchanged for the second consecutive quarter.
Foreign trade continued to weigh on GDP growth in the first quarter. Exports dropped significantly by 1.8%, driven by lower demand for transport equipment and chemical products.
In contrast, imports rose by 0.5%, supported by increased purchases of energy and other industrial goods.
Lastly, changes in inventories made a clearly positive contribution to GDP growth, adding 1.0 percentage point.
In April, household consumption recovered, driven by higher spending on food and manufactured goods. Consumer spending increased by 0.3%, reversing the 1.1% decline recorded in March.
Food consumption rose by 2.1%, while spending on engineered goods increased by 0.7%. In contrast, energy consumption fell by 3.6%.
Furthermore, in separate data released on Wednesday, producer prices in France declined for the seventeenth consecutive month in April.
On a yearly basis, producer prices dropped 0.8%, following a 0.2% decrease in March.
Meanwhile, the monthly decline in producer prices steepened significantly to 4.3% from 0.5%.
In addition, during the first quarter, payroll employment declined by 0.1%, representing a loss of 20,900 jobs compared to the previous quarter. This followed a larger drop of 0.4%, or 98,600 jobs, recorded in the fourth quarter.