French growth will slow sharply to 0.1-0.2% in the third quarter

　　France's (FRA) economic growth is set to slow in the coming months, a weak outlook for the euro zone's (EARN) second-largest economy that will complicate decision-making for the European Central Bank as the largest economy is likely to slip into recession while inflation remains more than twice the central bank's target.

　　The national statistics office, Insee, expects growth in the third quarter to fall from 0.5 per cent to a range of 0.1 per cent to 0.2 per cent.

　　"The slowdown in inflation has brought some life to consumers and businesses. But with inflation and interest rates high, there aren't many sources of support for growth, "said Julian Pougate, an economist at Insee.

　　The weakness has raised doubts about the government's forecast that the economy will improve substantially next year. "Quarterly growth would need to accelerate to an average of around 0.5 percent to achieve the 1.6 percent growth forecast for 2024," Pugate said.

　　Insee expects inflation to fall back to 4.2 per cent in December after peaking at 6.3 per cent in February.