French GDP up 0.3% q/q in Q2 with help from cruise ship delivery

PARIS (Reuters) - France's economy grew marginally faster than expected in the second quarter as the delivery of a cruise ship boosted exports, offsetting flat consumer spending, official data showed on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that the economy's performance in the second quarter meant growth would probably exceed the outgoing government's 1% forecast, especially with the Olympic Games likely to boost activity in the third quarter.

The euro zone's second-biggest economy grew 0.3% from the three months to the end of June when it also grew a revised 0.3%, according to preliminary data from statistics office INSEE. 

The increase, which topped the average of 0.2% in a Reuters poll of economists' expectations, offers the government some relief after it drew criticism earlier this year for lowering its forecast for 2024 growth to 1% from 1.4% and raised its budget deficit estimates.

"We will probably have growth after all that is better than the 1% forecast in February," Le Maire told journalists. "For two years, France has outperformed; our economic policies work and are giving tangible results."

He added that the better than expected growth could be positive for the strained budget deficit and said France needed to stay focused on reducing spending.

The country is currently in a political impasse after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election in June that produced a hung parliament.

The left-wing alliance that came first in the election wants to form a government and radically change France's economic course with a new tax-and-spending drive.

INSEE said that consumer spending, the traditional motor behind French growth, stalled in the second quarter, leaving domestic demand up only 0.1% due mainly to a slight increase in business investment and a 0.6% jump in public investment.

Foreign trade added 0.2 percentage points to GDP as the delivery of the Utopia of the Seas cruise ship to Royal Caribbean helped exports grow 0.6% while imports stagnated.

Although the political crisis has hit business morale, economic activity is expected to reach 0.5% in the third quarter with a boost from the Olympic Games, currently under way, INSEE forecast earlier this month.

(Reporting by Olivier Sorgho and Leigh Thomas; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Kirsten Donovan and Kevin Liffey)