France’s economy shrank for the fourth straight quarter in the first three months as companies slashed investment and exports plunged.
Gross domestic product fell 1.2 per cent from the fourth quarter, when it declined a revised 1.5 per cent, French statistics office Insee said.
Insee also earlier data today, revealing that France has been in a recession since the third quarter. Economists expected GDP to decrease 1.3 per cent.
The International Monetary Fund expects the euro region's second-largest economy to contract 3 per cent this year as the global slump saps exports, prompting companies to cut workers and reduce inventories.
Rising unemployment is sapping consumer spending, threatening to undermine a recovery in the second half.
"We like to think we touched bottom," said Laurence Boone, chief French economist at Barclays Capital in Paris.
"Things may improve only slowly, with global demand helping more than consumption."
France's worsening data reflect the situation across the euro region. Germany, the euro-region's biggest economy and France's largest trading partner, shrank 3.8 per cent in the first three months, the largest contraction in four decades.
The European Union's statistics office will release GDP figures for the bloc at 11am and economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect a contraction of 2 per cent.
Bloomberg