The end of the year was particularly difficult with declining activity in the last quarter, in the context of strikes against pension reform. Over the last three months of the year, GDP decreased by 0.1%, hampered by a drop in production, particularly industrial, as well as a slowdown in household consumption and business investment.
The figure of 1.2% for 2019 is 0.5 percentage points below the 1.7% recorded in 2018, and well below the 2.4% reached in 2017.
Growth is therefore slightly worse than expected, even though it remains higher than that of the eurozone.
Household consumption accelerated, increasing by 1.2% after a rise of 0.9% in 2018, as did investment, which was up by 3.6%, following a 2.8% increase in 2018. On the other hand, production, marked by a poor performance in the last quarter, slowed to 1.6%, after 2% the previous year.
Foreign trade, however, hampered growth, with a sharp increase in imports (+2.3%, after +1.2% in 2018) and a slowdown in exports (+1.8% after +3.5% in 2018) due, in particular, to the sluggish global economy, characterized by trade tensions between China and the United States.
