PARIS (Reuters) – The French economy will manage to just barely grow in the final quarter of this year, boosted by service sector activity, the French central bank estimated on Monday.
The euro zone’s second-biggest economy is on course to eke out 0.1% growth from the third quarter, when it contracted by an unexpected 0.1%, the Bank of France said in its monthly business survey.
It had previously estimated growth this quarter at 0.1-0.2%.
Meager growth in service sector, which accounts for 59% of economic activity, was expected to help offset declines in manufacturing as well as in the energy and construction sectors, the central bank said.
In the survey, industrial companies reported that their capacity utilisation rate had eased on average in November to 76%, the lowest in three years.
In a sign of inflation pressures, only 5% of industrial companies said they were raising their prices while 6% said they were cutting prices. In services, 9% of firms said they were raising prices and 5% cutting them.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
