French Economy Grows 1.4% In 2005

Confirming an earlier estimate but raising growth in the last quarter to 0.4% from 0.2%, the French economy grew by 1.4% in 2005, official data estimated on March 31.

The overall growth performance in the last quarter had been handicapped by a poor performance in foreign trade, the data showed. Household consumption at the end of the year had been dynamic but the economy had suffered from a big trade deficit and from a slowing of business investment, INSEE said.

But weakness on the foreign trade account had weakened output by 0.4 percentage points. Exports had risen by 1% in the fourth quarter after growth of 2.9% in the third quarter and imports had risen by 2.3%t after 2.6% in the previous quarter.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006