“France and Spain Release Positive GDP Growth Figures in First Quarter”

France: GDP increases by 0.2% in the first quarter

It is slightly better beyond the Alps. The growth of French economic activity reached 0.2% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the previous quarter, supported by the dynamism of industrial production and foreign trade, as stated today by the National Institute of Statistics (Insee).

Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire hailed the “solidity” of the French economy, whose “fundamentals are holding up. Companies continue to invest and create jobs, moving closer to our full employment target,” he added. While household consumption of goods fell by 0.2% in the first quarter with a sharp decline in food, hit by a double-digit inflation, the output of goods and services accelerated by 0.4 percent.

Spain: GDP accelerates by 0.5% in the first quarter

Plus sign also in Madrid. In the first quarter, Spanish economic growth accelerated slightly to 0.5%, thanks to a rebound in exports and business investment, according to a provisional estimate published by the National Institute of Statistics INE.

This rate, which bodes well for the Spanish economy, is 0.1 point higher than the growth figures for the third and fourth quarters of 2022, revised upwards by 0.2 points to 0.4 percent. It is also higher than the Bank of Spain’s forecast, which called for a 0.3% increase in gross domestic product. This slight acceleration can be explained by the good performance of the agricultural sector, where activity increased by 4.8%, but also of construction (+2.5%) and industry (+0.6%), with the service sector in slight contraction (-0.1% ).

Loading…