The French economy hit a rough patch in the third quarter, throwing the government's full-year growth target into question amid signs of an economic slowdown in the 12-nation euro zone.
French gross domestic product grew by just 0.1% in the third quarter from the second, well below an estimation of 0.5%, figures released by the national statistics institute INSEE showed.
INSEE also trimmed 0.1 percentage point off its earlier figures for growth in the first and second quarters of 2004 to 0.7% and 0.6% respectively.
The institute said that 'acquired growth' this year was now 2%, which meant it was unlikely that the economy would meet the government's 2004 target of 2.5%, or even INSEE's own estimate in October of 2.4%.
Third-quarter data 'integrated the accidental trend of industrial production in August,' which fell 2.1% as car production plunged 14.4%, the agency said.
Its figures follow a report yesterday from Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, which showed its modest recovery had run out of steam in the third quarter owing to a fall in exports. German GDP also shuddered to a near-halt in the period from July to September, growing by the same meagre 0.1%, the federal statistics office Destatis calculated.
Japan also said today that its economy also posted 0.1% growth in the quarter, on faltering capital expenditure and exports.
Euro zone experts are growing increasingly cautious about the outlook for growth in the single currency area in the face of the anticipated slowdown of the global economy, a new poll conducted by the European Central Bank showed. The experts are now pencilling in growth of around 2% in 2005, down from 2.1% previously.
