PARIS (Reuters) -The French economy contracted by 0.1% in the third quarter of the year, revised data from the statistics office INSEE showed on Thursday, while November inflation eased more than expected.
The contribution of gross fixed capital formation, which indicates how much of the new value added in an economy is invested rather than consumed, to France's national output was revised considerably downwards, while the contribution of domestic demand also slowed to 0.2 points, INSEE said.
The stats office said the contribution of external trade, at -0.4 points, had also negatively impacted gross domestic product (GDP) during the third quarter, as imports grew.
In November, the EU-harmonised preliminary inflation came to 3.8% year-on-year, below a Reuters poll of 19 economists, which had predicted a figure of 4.1%. The inflation was down from 4.5% in October, helped by easing price pressure in energy and in the services sector.
Food prices rose 7.6% in November, versus 7.8% in October while the increase in energy prices slowed to 3.1% after seeing an increase of 5.2% last month.
Month-on-month, prices declined by 0.2% as falling transportation and energy prices offset a month-on-month rise of food prices, especially fresh produce.
Despite the unexpected economic contraction, the government kept its 1% growth forecast for 2023.
"I maintain my growth forecasts. We will have positive growth this year and higher growth in 2024 than in 2023," Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said on French radio, adding that he was sticking with his forecast of 1.4% growth next year.
(Reporting by Piotr Lipinski, Zhifan Liu, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Gareth Jones)
