PARIS, April 24 - French consumer spending bounced back up inMarch, climbing 1.3 percent from the month before and 4.7 percent versusMarch 2000, according to figures published on Tuesday by the nationalstatistics office INSEE. INSEE also revised the scale of a spending dip in February to a 0.1 percentfall, from a previous estimate of a 0.9 percent fall. "This is very strong....To tell the truth, I don't think anyone was expecting sucha big rebound," said economist Stephane Deo of UBS Warburg. "People keep saying consumption is the key thing in France and Europe moregenerally. It's still holding up well." French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius called the March figures "excellent". Economists had been expecting a March rebound of 0.3 percent. Household expenditure, regarded as a vital source of French economicgrowth at a time when exports are hit by weaker demand from the UnitedStates and other foreign markets, rose most strongly in the automobile sector,where spending was up 3.0 percent in the month, INSEE said. Separate INSEE data confirmed March consumer price inflation of 0.5percent, according to the standardised measure used to improvecomparability across the European Union. Consumer confidence and spending throughout much of the euro zone took ahit late last year when a surge in world oil costs pushed up petrol pumpprices. Governments and independent forecasters reckon tax cuts and waning oilprices will help to sustain healthy consumer spending levels and provide a keysource of growth despite mixed signals on consumer confidence recently inthe 12-nation currency bloc.