The French economy grew slightly at the end of 2022. From the third to the fourth quarter, the second largest economy in the euro zone grew by 0.1 percent, as reported by the Insee statistics office in Paris on Tuesday. Bank economists had expected stagnation. In the third quarter, growth was 0.2 percent.
The trend in the final quarter was supported by foreign trade. Domestic demand, on the other hand, weighed on the overall result, primarily due to a significant drop in consumer demand. Although companies expanded their investments, they did so at a slower pace than in the previous quarter.
In 2022 as a whole, economic growth during Insee was 2.6 percent. The increase follows significantly stronger growth in the previous year, which was, however, a counter-reaction to the severe slump in the Corona year 2020. (dpa)