France, the euro zone’s second-biggest economy, unexpectedly slowed down a bit in the first quarter as the business investment and exports decrease than the estimate of INSEE statistics agency on Friday. Statistically, according to the reports of INSEE, the economy rose by 0.3 percent in the first three month of the year, which is the slowest rate since the third quarter of 2016, compared to the 0.7 percent in the last three months of 2017. The expected average growth of economists is 0.4 percent with forecasts ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 percent based on the survey of 30 economists by Reuters. Consumer spending has a major part in the economy rose by only 0.2 percent in the first quarter despite unusual cold temperature that heightens the need for energy consumption at the same rate as the previous quarter. Business investment also slowed down to 0.5 percent from 1.6 percent in the past three months while exports dropped marginally following its surge last quarter. Meanwhile, the foreign trades did not contribute to overall growth amid the condition of flat imports.
