French output in Q3 grows 0.4% after minus 0.1% in Q2

French economy rebounded to a 0.4-percent growth in the third quarter mainly due to positive contribution from production, foreign trade balance and renewed household consumption, the national statistics bureau Insee said on Tuesday. In the third quarter, households' consumption grew by 0.3 percent after a setback in spring, making positive contribution to national output. So did the foreign trade balance, which comprised of an accelerated increase of 0.7 percent in exports and a 4-percent growth in imports. Production in goods and services saw a 0.4-percent growth in the July-September period, after a decrease of 0.1 percent in the second quarter, offsetting the impact of decelerated investment, which slowed from 0.6 percent to 0.4 percent in the three-month period. In addition, Insee data showed a 0.3-percent decrease in inventories from July to September, better than the 0.6-percent decrease in the previous quarter. The agency, however, revised the second quarter growth figure down from stagnation to minus 0.1 percent at the same time, citing the revision of industrial production index and additional weights of consumption indicators. Insee forecast a 1.7-percent increase of gross domestic production (GDP) growth of the French economy for whole year of 2011, 0.3 percentage points up from 1.4 percent in 2010. Its projection was 0.5 percentage point lower than the government's target, but in line with the expectation of the Bank of France.