On the growth front, some optimism is in order. Because even if growth were zero in the second half of the year (which will certainly not be the case), the GDP growth for the entire year is already at 1.3%. This established growth for 2017 is based on the performance of the French economy in the first six months of the year. With 0.5% growth in the first three months of the year, and the same figure for the second quarter, growth is thus robust.
Insee thus forecasts another 0.5% for the third quarter, and 0.4% for the end of the year. What pushed the increase in the gross domestic product during the spring is the strong performance of exports. While they had declined by 0.9% in the first quarter, they significantly increased by 2.5% in the second. As for imports, they are also rising (+0.4%), but less than during the first three months of the year (+1.1%).
Household consumption is expected to support growth in the third quarter, according to the statistics institute. Indeed, it picked up in July (+0.7%), whereas consumption had dipped in June. Purchases of manufactured goods increased by 1.2% (they had decreased by 0.7% in June), as did food products (+0.8%). Regarding energy, its consumption decreased by 0.5%, particularly for heating oil and unleaded gasoline.
