France's central bank confirms growth contraction in Q4

France's central bank, Banque de France (BdF), confirmed on Monday that the economy of Europe's main powerhouse will lose momentum in the last quarter this year. As France's key industrial activity suffered a setback due to poor competitiveness and deteriorating business climate, the BdF expected French gross domestic product (GDP) to contract by 0.1 percent from October to December. At the end of November, the bank's report showed that " industrial activity posted a very slight progression," with the capacity utilisation rate was almost stable at 76.6 percent and remained below its long-term average. With ordered books considered insufficient, the bank pointed to a slight slowdown in the industrial sector this month. An increase in IT activities, accommodations and food services helped the country to bolster its service that were set to gain ground in the short term, according to the bank. Last month's indicator of industry lost point to 91 from October's figure while that of services was unchanged at 91 points. For the full year, the government forecasts the French economy's growth to stand at 0.3 percent from a previous estimation of 0.7 percent.