In late January, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEI) announced thatGross domestic product (GDP) remained flat in the fourth quarter of 2023. This Thursday, February 29, the same organization revised its figures upwards.
New figures show that France’s GDP grew in the fourth quarter of 2023. It is 0.1%, compared to zero in the January estimate. This upward revision by INSEE is explained by household consumption which has stabilized. Consumption which started declining again in January this year.
However, INSEE confirms these figures for the whole of 2023. The organization maintained a growth level of 0.9% for last year. Growth was significantly supported by a dynamic second quarter (+0.6%, revised downward by 0.1 points). The first and third quarters stalled.
First half of 2024: INSEE expects GDP growth to be 0.2%
It must be said that the French economy is broken. GDP growth should reach just 0.2% for the first two quarters of 2024, INSEE suggested in a study earlier in the month. Figures that forced the government to revise its growth forecast downwards and implement a massive savings plan.
INSEE explains that the small increase seen by household consumption in the last quarter was slightly lower than expected. Between October and December, it stabilized (0% compared to -0.1% in the first estimate), consumption of services counterbalanced the decline observed in food and energy costs.
The year 2024 is off to a bad start
This relative increase is also a result of household purchasing power attributed to the increase in their total disposable income. In fact, purchasing power was particularly supported by salary increases, supplementary pension increases or payment of purchasing power bonuses to government employees.
For this year, the situation is almost the same as 2023 with minor nuances. In January, domestic consumption started to decline again. It fell 0.3%, INSEE showed, explaining that this was due to a 1.5% drop in purchases of manufactured goods in a month. This was a decline of 3.3% after rising 1.7% in December.
” This decrease is explained by a sharp decrease in the purchase of transport equipment (+4.8% after -6.7%) which especially concerns new cars, in terms of tightening the ecological bonus and penalty system, but also used cars. », indicates INSEE.
