France's 2017 growth revised up to 2 pct

PARIS - France's national statistics institute Insee on Wednesday revised up the growth rate of the country, eurozone's second leading power, to 2 percent for the whole year of 2017, up by one percentage point from a previous estimate.

Last year, France accelerated its economic activities to the highest performance since 2011 thanks to 4.4 percent growth in investment and an increase of 2.4 percent in industry output, up from initial figures of 4.3 percent and 2.3 percent.

Over the period, exports rose by 3.3 percent while imports slowed to 4.1 percent, contributing positively to GDP growth, according to the report.

Meanwhile, household consumption decelerated to 1.3 percent after it had risen by 2.1 in 2016 mainly because of a sharp slowdown in goods, it added.

For the whole year of 2018, the government expects the growth at 1.7 percent.