French GDP Shrinks as Hollande Faces Job Cuts, Recession
This article is for subscribers only.
The French economy shrank in the fourth quarter and revisions put it in recession earlier in the year as manufacturers slashed tens of thousands of jobs and President Francois Hollande squeezed the budget deficit.
Gross domestic product dropped 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, national statistics office Insee said today. Economists had forecast a 0.2 percent drop, according a Bloomberg News survey. Insee’s revision of the first-quarter 2012 performance to a -0.1 percent drop means Europe’s second-largest economy dipped into recession in the first half for the first time since 2009.