{"id":58827,"date":"2026-04-30T05:20:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T09:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/french-growth-stalls-as-iran-war-energy-shock-hits-economy\/30\/04\/2026\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T05:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T09:20:26","slug":"french-growth-stalls-as-iran-war-energy-shock-hits-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/french-growth-stalls-as-iran-war-energy-shock-hits-economy\/30\/04\/2026\/","title":{"rendered":"French growth stalls as Iran war energy shock hits economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->France&#8217;s economy ground to a halt in the first quarter of 2026, official figures showed Thursday, as soaring energy costs linked to the Iran war began squeezing households and businesses.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->France and Italy have both trimmed their growth outlooks, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/business\/2026\/04\/22\/germany-halves-gdp-forecast-from-1-to-05-due-to-iran-war-fallout\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Germany has halved its 2026 forecast to 0.5%.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Germany has halved its 2026 forecast to 0.5%.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"><strong>Germany has halved its 2026 forecast to 0.5%.<\/strong><\/a><!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Gross domestic product was flat between January and March, according to a first estimate from the French national statistics institute INSEE, a sharp step down from the 0.2% expansion recorded in the final quarter of 2025 and below analyst forecasts.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->The data paint a picture of an economy losing traction across the board.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Consumer spending dipped 0.1% over the quarter, while overall investment fell 0.4%, dragged down by declines in construction and manufactured goods.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Exports slumped 3.8%, delivering a 0.7 percentage point drag on growth from net trade. Only a build-up in inventories, which added 0.8 points, prevented an outright contraction.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Inflation, meanwhile, quickened to 2.2% in April \u2014 the highest reading since mid-2024 and above what analysts had expected \u2014 pointing to price pressures running in the opposite direction to growth.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b class=\"c-widget-related__title__text\">Related<\/b><!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->The figures capture only the opening weeks of the conflict that began on 28 February, when US-Israeli strikes targeted Iranian military infrastructure and triggered an effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly 20% of global seaborne crude oil passes.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Those price rises feed directly into household energy bills, industrial costs and transport, compressing purchasing power at a moment when French consumers were already cautious.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->The eurozone economy could contract in the second quarter and then flatline over the second half of the year if the conflict persists for several months, according to Chatham House.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Thursday&#8217;s figures are the first of a wave of first-quarter GDP releases from major European economies. The eurozone as a whole is expected to show steady growth of 0.2%.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/economy\/articles\/french-growth-flatlines-iran-war-084553648.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France&rsquo;s economy ground to a halt in the first quarter of 2026, official figures showed Thursday, as soaring energy costs linked to<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/french-growth-stalls-as-iran-war-energy-shock-hits-economy\/30\/04\/2026\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/en\/euronews_us_articles_576\/3ca0d2224e26a55cee4f81258c16cfd7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}