French growth grinds to a halt

was labelled the ‘problem child’ of the eurozone yesterday after its struggling economy ground to a halt.

Official figures showed the country managed no growth at all in the second quarter of the year as floods, strikes and worries about terrorism knocked confidence.

That compares with stronger-thanexpected growth of 0.6 per cent in the UK between the start of April and end of June.

The economies of the eurozone and the US grew by just 0.3 per cent in the second quarter – half the rate seen in the UK.

The figures make a mockery of pre-referendum warnings that the threat of Brexit was already taking its toll on our economy. ‘France has been the problem child of this second quarter,’ was the damning verdict of Jean-Paul Agon, chief executive of L’Oreal, one of France’s biggest companies.

It came as a report by Eurostat showed unemployment in the eurozone remained stubbornly high at 10.1 per cent in June.

Chris Williamson, economist at research group Markit, said ‘a further slowing looks highly likely’ in the single currency bloc.