PARIS, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The growth rate of France, the eurozone's second leading power, grew by 0.5 percent in the first quarter of the year from the last quarter of 2016, Insee national statistics agency said here on Friday.
In its economic report, Insee revised the quarterly figure up from the previous estimate of 0.4 percent.
It attributed the improvement in the country's economic activities to the 0.4 percent rise in internal demand and to the 0.7 percent increase in inventory change.
Over the first quarter, households consumption in France stagnated compared to the former quarter, while exports fell at 0.7 percent after the 1.1 percent increase in the former quarter.
All in all, foreign trade balance weighed down on GDP growth by 0.6 percentage points. Conversely, changes in inventories contributed positively to GDP by 0.7 points, according to Insee figures.
For the whole year of 2017, Insee expects the French economy to accelerate by 1.6 percent.
