The French economy lurched back into contraction in the final quarter of last year but not as much as expected after the country faced a second coronavirus lockdown, official data released on Friday showed.
The euro zone's second-biggest economy shrank 1.3% in the final three months of last year after surging 18.5% in the previous quarter, when it staged an unprecedented rebound following a first lockdown, the INSEE stats agency said.
The result exceeded expectations for a 4% slump on average in a Reuters poll of 28 economists with estimates ranging from -1.4% to -5.3%.
It also meant that for the whole of 2020 the economy contracted 8.3%, better than the -11% the government had forecast in its budget plans.
