Paris, Nov 30, 2023 (AFP) - The eurozone's second-largest economy France shrank slightly in the third quarter, official data showed Thursday, while the inflation weighing on consumers eased in November.
Gross domestic product (GDP) retreated by 0.1 percent in July-September, statistics authority INSEE said, returning close to flatline following a strong second-quarter expansion.
INSEE pointed to revitalised household consumption over the three months, counterbalanced by slowing investments and falling exports.
Thursday's figure was a revision of an earlier estimate that showed the economy expanding slightly in the third quarter.
Monthly inflation data showed that year-on-year price growth in France slowed to 3.4 percent in November.
INSEE pointed to falling inflation for services, energy and consumer goods including food -- a sore point among squeezed French households that has had the government scrambling for solutions.
"We are emerging from the inflationary crisis," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told broadcaster France Inter early Thursday.
"But there is a price to pay: disappearing inflation means higher interest rates, so less financing for the economy, and therefore an economic slowdown," he added.
"If we look further ahead, to 2024 and 2025, we'll have much lower inflation, stable interest rates, and therefore growth can restart," Le Maire said.
The minister on Friday faces what is becoming a regular trial of nerves, as one of the world's major rating agencies -- Standard and Poor's -- updates its evaluation of France's three-trillion-euro debt pile.
"We have made solid arguments for our credibility in our determination to reduce debt" swollen by the whatever-it-takes response to the coronavirus pandemic, Le Maire said.
Government projections call for France's annual public deficit to fall below 3.0 percent of GDP by 2027, when President Emmanuel Macron will leave office.
S&P competitor Fitch lowered France's credit rating by one notch, to "AA-", in April.-- AFP
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