The French central bank revises its GDP growth estimates downwards, which were already zero in the third quarter between April and June. France is thus starting to record the first quarter of decline three years after the official exit from the state of recession, in the spring of 2009.
According to the transalpine institute, which initially predicted a stagnation, in June, GDP will record a drop of 0,1%, mainly due to the low business confidence index (93 in industry, 92 in services), the decline in industrial production, particularly in the automotive and metallurgical sectors, and consumption which continues to be held back by the crisis.
Despite this, the government is still confident that it will be able to return to positive growth by the end of 2012, with an expected rate of +0,5% which, again according to estimates from Paris, will become +1,7% in 2013.
