2019.10.3007:05:00UTC+00France Q3 Growth Steady At 0.3%

France's economy expanded at a steady pace in the third quarter, the first estimate from the statistical office Insee showed Wednesday.

Gross domestic product climbed 0.3 percent sequentially, the same pace of growth as seen in the second quarter. Economists had forecast GDP to grow 0.2 percent.

The expenditure-side breakdown of GDP showed that growth in household spending improved to 0.3 percent from 0.2 percent, while growth in gross fixed capital formation decelerated to 0.9 percent from 1.2 percent.

Overall, final domestic demand excluding inventory changes contributed 0.5 points to GDP growth.

Imports rebounded in the third quarter, up 1.4 percent after falling 0.3 percent and exports grew 0.3 percent after a 0.1 percent drop. Consequently, the foreign trade balance contributed negatively to GDP growth, by -0.4 points. Further, changes in inventories contributed positively to GDP growth by +0.1 points in the third quarter.