The Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators for France was unchanged in November 2004, the latest month for which data are available. The index stood at 105.6 (1990=100).
The growth rate of the leading index has slowed to a 2% to 3% annual rate in recent months, that "is still consistent with [France's] real GDP increasing at about its trend rate in the near term," the New York-based business research group says. "As a result, the behavior of the leading index in recent months suggests that economic growth should pick up in the near term from its no growth in the third quarter [of 2004]."