PARIS: The Bank of France maintained on Monday its forecast for French quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 0.5 percent in the third quarter, unchanged from the second quarter. The prediction was part of the central bank´s September business climate survey, which showed that the sentiment indicator for the industrial sector was steady at 104 points in September, unchanged from the August reading.
The sentiment indicator for the services industry was also steady at 100 points in September, unchanged from August, while sentiment in the construction sector edged up to 104 points in September from 103 points in August. The Bank of France added that business leaders expected a pick-up in industry, services and construction in October. Earlier this month, the INSEE official statistics agency said that a surge in investment had put the French economy on course for growth of 1.8 percent in 2017 – its best since 2011.INSEE also forecast 0.5 percent quarterly growth for the three months through to the end of September.
