PARIS (Reuters) - The French economy is set to grow 0.3 percent in the first three months of the year, the central bank forecast on Wednesday, revising downwards its estimate of a month ago by 0.1 percentage points.
If confirmed, that would mark the same rate of growth as the final quarter of last year. On Feb. 26 the INSEE statistics agency revised up fourth quarter growth to 0.3 percent from 0.2 previously for the euro zone's second-biggest economy.
The Bank of France offered the estimate in its monthly business sentiment survey, which showed morale in the industrial sector fell to 98 in February after reaching 101 in January - the highest since May 2011.
Meanwhile, the indicator for the services sector remained stable at 96 as the hotel and restaurant industries continued to suffer after the November jihadist attacks in Paris.
Business leaders expect both industrial and services activity to increase in March, the survey showed.