French Growth of 0.1% Enough to Avoid Recession

The French economy has been on the brink of recession and has avoided a technical recession by providing flat or minimal growth.

The French economy will avoid recession this year, according to the country’s central bank.

It predicts growth of 0.1% in the first three months of 2013, a more upbeat outlook than that of many economists, who are discouraged by recent data.

A recession is usually defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

In its monthly report, the Bank of France said: “Forecasts point to a modest rise in [industrial] activity in February.”

The bank added that the business confidence indicator for industry had risen to its highest level in nearly a year.

But many experts have made gloomier predictions – partly because of January’s manufacturing data, which showed the sharpest fall in output since March 2009.

Initial economic growth figures for France are due out on 14 February. The government’s official forecast is for 0.8% this year.

French President Francois Hollande is trying to make France more competitive. He recently called for more currency stability, arguing that the French economy “could be destroyed by the rising value of the euro”.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza