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French GDP increased by 0.4 percent during the July-September quarter, with statistics agency INSEE attributing this growth to increased consumption during this summer’s Paris Olympics and Paralympics.
This places France firmly within the Eurozone-wide average, between bloc heavyweight Germany and sprinter Spain, which added 0.8 percent.
Increased consumption around the Paris Olympics lent a spring to French growth this summer, official data showed Wednesday, with the economy expanding 0.4 percent in the July-September quarter.
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The figure from statistics agency INSEE was in line with the Eurozone-wide average also published Wednesday, placing France between the bloc’s ailing heavyweight Germany, at 0.2 percent, and sprinter Spain, which added 0.8 percent.
After expansion of just 0.2 percent in each of the first two quarters, faster growth was “good news”, Finance and Economy Minister Antoine Armand said in a statement sent to AFP.
The expansion offered “gains going into the months ahead that will be aided by inflation retreating, falling interest rates and reforms the government has set in train”.
Growth was driven faster by a 0.5-percent increase in consumer spending, which accounts for more than half of French GDP.
Spending by households had been suppressed in recent years as they felt the squeeze from higher energy prices and interest rates.
“A large part of this increase (around half) is linked to the consumption of recreational services in connection with the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games,” INSEE said in a statement.
Especially notable factors were ticket sales and sales of multimedia distribution rights.
Weaker areas included trade, which added just 0.1 percentage points to GDP in the third quarter as imports fell faster than exports.
Investment also took a 0.8-percent hit, with a steeper 1.4 percent decline for business investment.
“This significant weakness is the black spot on the report” for the third quarter, said Maxime Darmet, an economist for Allianz Trade.
He suggested that businesses were holding off on investments as financial conditions “remain complicated” for many following the surge in interest rates and inflation.
Some may also be looking anxiously at national politics, where President Emmanuel Macron’s gamble on new elections this summer has left France in a precarious position.
