France's Q4 growth up 0.2 pct

The French national statistics bureau Insee on Wednesday said France's quarterly growth rate inched up by 0.2 percent, slightly lower than third quarter's results. On yearly basis, France's gross domestic product (GDP) gained three points percentage to stand at 1.7 percent. For the October-December period of last year, French sales abroad kept their dynamic trend as they grew by 1.2 percent on resilient exports of transport equipments, while imports fell by 1.2 percent after they had risen by 0.7 percent a quarter earlier. As result, the country's trade balance contributed positively to GDP with 0.7 percentage points, Insee data showed. Investment in the eurozone's second largest economy reported a 0.9- percent rise over the last three months of 2011 compared to 0.2 percent registered a quarter earlier with cash of non-financial firms increased by 1.4 percent. The rate of households' expenditure decelerated to 0.2 percent mainly due to 3.6-percent drop of energy expenditure because of mild weather. The French government wants to reach 0.5 percent of growth target this year, down from a previous forecast of 1 percent.