France's central bank keeps quarterly growth estimate unchanged at 0.3 pct

Source: Xinhua | 2019-04-09

France's central bank, Banque de France (BdF), said on Monday it expects a 0.3-percent growth over the first three months of 2019, confirming a previous estimation.
At the end of March, industrial business gained momentum mainly due to "robust production in IT products and textile," while that of automobile and food processing industries was almost stable, the bank said.
Order books slowed in February, and the capacity utilization rate inched down to 79.6 percent last month compared to a month earlier, BdF data showed.
According to the survey, based on business leaders' appreciation, industrial activities were expected to maintain the same positive trend in the short term.
Over the period, services activities slowed in a majority of sectors. Meanwhile, improved performance was forecasted during this month.
The business sentiment indicator in industry and services was unchanged at 100 points and 101 points respectively.
The BdF has set France's 2019 growth at 1.5 percent, below a government target of 1.7 percent.