France's growth to eke out by 0.4% in 2014

The national statistics institute Insee forecasted "a modest growth" of the French economy for the whole year of 2014 due to a continued deteriorating business climate in the eurozone's second largest economy.
In its quarterly economic outlook released late on Thursday, Insee estimated that growth in France would eke out by 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter and during final three months after stagnating in the second quarter.
"Unlikely to see a real upturn," in 2014, the French economy would grew by 0.4 percent this year, which was down from June forecast for 0.7 percent rise.
After falling by 0.9 percent for April-June period, manufacturing output was set to rise by 0.1 percent this year compared to 0.6 percent fall in 2013. However, the sector's slight improvement would be offset by 3.6-percent drop in construction businesses, according to the report.
As to corporate investment and exports, the trends remained "particularly disappointing," while households' expenditure would inch up 0.1 percent over the period after it had stagnated last year, it added.
In its report, Insee said "sluggish growth in France is likely to lead to slow growth unemployment" with job claims would increase by 0.1 point to 10.3 percent at the end of the year as "further ramp-up of the (generation contracts) is likely to be cancelled out by the greater number of people leaving 'integration'."
For the whole year of 2014, the government revised down its growth target to 0.4 percent from an initial estimate of 1 percent, blaming wane activity in Europe and weak inflation.
It also pledged to reduce the number of unemployed people to below 3 million thanks to billion-euro-cut in labor charges and sponsored-state jobs.