The French economy suffered its largest decline since World War II in 2009, but rebounded more strongly than foreseen in the fourth quarter, the government's statistics office INSEE said Friday in its first evaluation. French GDP shrank by 2.2 per cent for the year, the largest annual drop of the postwar years, but grew by 0.6 per cent in the fourth quarter, INSEE said. The rebound was largely driven by household consumption, which rose by 0.9 per cent, compared to 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, and by domestic demand, which grew by 0.5 per cent, after falling marginally in the third quarter, according to dpa. On the other hand, INSEE revised downward GDP growth for the third quarter of 2009, to 0.2 per cent.
