France economy bounces back on strong exports

Buoyant exports enabled the French economy to rebound faster than expected in the second quarter after a slight contraction at the start of the year, official data showed on Friday.

France’s gross domestic product grew by 0.5 percent in the period from April to June, the national statistics institute Insee calculated in a statement.

Both Banque de France and Insee itself had been pencilling in growth of 0.20-0.25 percent for the second quarter after the French economy contracted by 0.2 percent in the preceding three months.

The better-than-expected performance was driven primarily by booming foreign trade, with exports growing by 0.8 percent, Insee said.

At the same time, domestic demand remained sluggish and household spending shrank by 0.2 percent, even if that was a much shallower contraction than the 1.3 percent recorded in the first quarter, Insee said.

Based on the second-quarter data, Insee said it projected the French economy to grow by 2.5 percent overall for the whole of 2022, in line with the government’s own forecasts and slightly better than the 2.3 percent projected by the Banque de France and the International Monetary Fund.

Other EU and eurozone members are also scheduled to publish second-quarter GDP figures on Friday.

The day before, official data showed that the US economy shrank by 0.9 percent in the period from April to June, putting the world’s biggest economy in recession.