French fourth quarter GDP growth beats forecasts

France´s economy grew slightly more quickly than expected at the end of 2015, as government spending and investment offset drags from consumption and net exports.

The country´s gross domestic product expanded at a 0.3% quarter-on-quarter clip, according to revised figures published by INSEE.

That was better than the 0.2% rise which economists had been forecasting and INSEE´s own preliminary estimate.

Net trade shrank at a revised pace of 0.5% quarter-on-quarter, in comparison to the -0.3% initially thought.

However, that was more than offset by upwards revisions to household consumption and government spending, to -0.2% and 0.5%, respectively.

Manufacturing capital expenditures were also revised substantially higher.

Gross fixed capital formation was now estimated to have expanded by 1.0%, if the public sector´s contribution was excluded.

Excluding inventories final domestic demand grew by 0.2% versus the third quarter, according to government statisticians, versus an initial estimate of 0.1%.

"On a sequential basis, today’s household goods consumption data imply a +0.9% carry over for Q1 16 (after -0.5% in Q4 15), broadly consistent with our forecast of a rebound in private consumption from -0.2% q/q to +0.5% q/q, and thus an acceleration of GDP from 0.3% q/q to 0.4% q/q in Q1 16," Barclays´s Francois Cabau said.