French GDP Growth Accelerates Unexpectedly

(RTTNews) - France's economic growth accelerated in the third quarter despite political uncertainty and trade tensions, official data revealed on Thursday.

Gross domestic product registered a quarterly growth of 0.5 percent, following a 0.3 percent rise in the second quarter, the statistical office INSEE reported. The growth was expected to ease to 0.2 percent.

The expenditure-side breakdown showed that both domestic demand and foreign trade supported growth.

Household consumption and government spending grew at a steady pace of 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively. The increase in gross fixed capital formation picked up moderately to 0.4 percent from zero.

Foreign trade contributed positively to GDP growth by 0.9 points in the third quarter as exports growth advanced to 2.2 percent from 0.3 percent, while imports fell 0.4 percent after a 1.4 percent gain.

Finally, changes in inventories made a negative contribution to GDP by 0.6 points. The negative contribution came mainly from aeronautics and chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Another report showed that household spending logged a slightly faster growth in September due to the rebound in energy and food consumption.

Household spending moved up 0.3 percent from the prior month, slightly faster than the 0.2 percent climb in August. Consumption was forecast to remain flat in September.