PARIS, Jan 6 - The French economy grew 0.4 percent in the third quarter of 2003, national statistics office INSEE said on Tuesday in a report which confirmed preliminary figures but which reduced first and second quarter growth estimates. The 0.4 percent rise came after a second quarter fall of 0.4 percent that had been previously been reported as a drop of 0.3 percent, and a downward revision of first quarter growth as well, to flat from a previously reported 0.1 percent increase. Economists polled by had on average forecast INSEE would confirm a third-quarter GDP growth figure at 0.4 percent. The confirmed figures showed imports were slightly stronger than initially reported, being flat in the third quarter after a previously reported fall of -0.1 percent. Exports rose 0.8 percent in Q3, compared to a rise of 1.1 percent in the preliminary report. Investment was revised to a rise of 0.1 percent from a previously reported rise of 0.3 percent. Separately, French Budget Minister Alain Lambert on Tuesday confirmed the government's growth forecast of 1.7 percent for 2004, saying in an interview with Europe 1 radio that there were signs of a robust recovery after almost flat growth in 2003.
Worries about job prospects weigh on French households, with consumer spending -- France's traditional growth motor -- suffering its biggest drop in seven years in November. French President Jacques Chirac on Monday called on the conservative government to turn 2004 into a "year of results", marked by action and mobilisation to cut unemployment. "The road map is clear. The priority of the internal plan obviously is employment. The return of growth has to be consolidated, strengthened and developed. It's a chance that has to be taken to durably shrink unemployment," Chirac said. Officials have said unemployment should fall in 2004, and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has said France would flesh out plans for a new law aimed at creating more jobs in the first-half of 2004 and vote it through by the end of the year.
The jobless rate in the euro zone's second largest economy eased to 9.6 percent in November from a three-and-a-half year peak of 9.7 percent in October, but France's unemployment rate remains far above the euro zone level of 8.8 percent. Sending a more optimistic picture than consumers, France's manufacturing sector expanded for the third month running in December, a recent /CDAF survey showed. A jump in December business morale to a 2 1/2-year high suggests industry will lead a recovery in France, which accounts for a fifth of the eurozone's economic output.//