France's central bank keeps quarterly estimate unchanged at 0.3%

France's central Bank, Banque de France (BdF) on Thursday expected the growth in the eurozone's second key powerhouse to accelerate by 0.3 percent in the third quarter, unchanged from the first forecast.

The BdF said "industrial activity rose at moderate pace" in August as a stable performance of chemicals and pharmaceutical activities offset a rebound auto business.

The capacity utilization rate grew by 1.3 point to 79 percent, reaching its five-year high.

Forecasts pointed to a continued moderate rise in September, it added.

As to the service sector, activity was stable last month but its outlook for this month would be more positive, according to the bank's survey.

For the whole year of 2016, French central bank forecast 1.2 percent growth in France's national output, lower by three percentage points from the government target.

Source: XINHUA