France saw its gross domestic product (GDP) growing to 1 percent in the first quarter, the strongest expansion since the second quarter of 2006, Insee figures showed on Friday.
According to the national statistics institute, a buoyant manufacturing output helped the country to accelerate its GDP after reporting a 3.7 percent rise.
Services key businesses contributed also in the country's growth as they posted an increase of 1.1 percent against 0.2 percent in the last quarter of 2010.
French households expenditure rose to 0.6 percent while total domestic demand stood at 0.6 percent up from 0.4 percent, the monthly economic data showed.
The country's imports grew by 2.7 percent compared with 0.7 percent fall over the previous quarter while sales abroad rose by 1.4 percent. As a result, the foreign trade balance contributed negatively to GDP growth as it was at minus 4 percent versus 0.3 percent during last quarter of the previous year.
France estimates a GDP growth at 2 percent as it wants to narrow its deficit gap and create enough jobs in the country of 65 million population./.