French Industrial Production Climbs as Recovery Prompts Renewed Investment

French industrial production rose in July as the global economic recovery prompted companies to renew investment.

Output rose 0.9 percent from June, when it dropped 1.7 percent, Paris-based national statistics office Insee said in a report today. Economists had forecast a 0.7 percent gain, according to the median of 13 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Output climbed 5.5 percent from a year earlier.

Investment by French companies increased in the second quarter for the first time in two years, driving a 0.6 percent gain in gross domestic product. While companies may maintain investment to boost productivity, the pace of economic expansion may be curbed by government efforts to reduce the budget deficit and a cooling global economy.

“The turn in the investment cycle is well underway,” said Pierre-Olivier Beffy, chief economist at Exane BNP Paribas in Paris. “There is a strong desire to increase productivity and companies are spending on that.”

Manufacturing output, which excludes utilities and mining, rose 1.4 percent in July from June, when it fell a revised 1.2 percent, Insee said today. It climbed 5.5 percent from a year earlier.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net; Mark Deen in Paris at markdeen@bloomberg.net

• Tweet
• More
  • Business Exchange
  • Buzz up!
  • Digg
• Print
• Email