France out of recession, official figures show

PARIS - France emerged from recession in the second quarter of 2009 as its GDP rose by 0.3 percent, the government’s statistics office INSEE announced Friday.

The economic expansion followed four consecutive quarters of contraction for the French economy, caught up in the global economic crisis.

France is the second-largest economy in the eurozone.

INSEE said the improvement was largely due to a significant turnaround in the country’s balance of trade, as exports grew by 0.7 percent in the second quarter, following a drop of 7.4 percent in the first quarter of the year.

At the same time, INSEE revised slightly downward the performance of the economy in the first quarter, saying that GDP had fallen by 1.4 percent in the period, compared to a previous estimation of 1.3 percent.