French economy ends recession but investment still lags

The French economy clearly ended the recessionary period in the second quarter, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanding by 0. 5 percent but there still appears no clear prospect of any meaningful growth for the whole of 2013, according to data published Friday. The National Statistics Institute (INSEE) said in its latest report for the second quarter that the economy had rebounded strongly by half a percent of GDP, coming after a contraction of 0.1 percent in the first quarter. Second quarter imports rose a sharp 1.7 percent compared with almost no growth in the preceding three-month period, while exports grew by a strong 2.0 percent compared with a fall of 0.5 percent in the previous period. INSEE said that GDP expansion overall for 2013 will now depend on the second and third quarter performance. The government says it is not expecting growth to be much more than 0.1 percent this year and 0.9 percent in 2014. The INSEE report noted more worryingly that domestic investment was not picking up quickly and had, in fact, fallen by 0.4 percent in the second quarter after a 1.0 percent decline in the first three months