PARIS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- In an estimate on Wednesday, France's statistics institute Insee saw the country's growth rate at 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2018, down by one percentage point from a previous forecast mainly due to wane households consumption and slowing investment.
Recording 0.7 percent growth by the end of 2017, the eurozone's second largest economy registered its weakest economic performance since 2016 as households expenditure and investment, the country's key growth engines, decelerated to 0.1 percent and 0.2 respectively, Insee figures showed.
During the first quarter this year, growth of sales abroad declined by 0.3 percent compared to 2.3 percent a quarter earlier. Imports also fell by 0.3 percent.
Due to a significant decrease in transport equipment, output of manufactured goods fell 1 percent while the total production of goods and services slowed down to 0.1 percent for the January-March period this year after it reported a 1 percent rise in last quarter of 2017.
French government targets to accelerate its gross domestic product by 2 percent for the whole year of 2018 thanks to boosted demand and favorable domestic business climate in the eurozone. Enditem
