(MENAFN- AFP) France's private sector growth accelerated in March to reach its highest level in nearly six years, a key survey showed Friday.
Services were the main driver for the expansion, according to the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) compiled by Markit, a financial services firm, with manufacturing also helping growth.
"March PMI data continued to signal strong growth in the French private sector, and completed a solid set of numbers for the first quarter," said Markit economist Alex Gill in a statement.
"The expansion was broad-based across both the service and manufacturing sub-sectors, although the former continued to be the principal underlying driver."
The PMI rose to its highest level since May 2011 in March, reaching 57.6 against 55.9 in February, Markit said.
Separately, national statistics bureau Insee on Friday reported overall French economic growth of 0.4 percent for the fourth quarter, in line with its earlier estimate.
This takes France's full-year 2016 gross domestic product expansion to 1.1 percent.
Although on an upward path, growth still fell short of the government's 1.4 percent estimate for the final full year of President Francois Hollande's five-year term.
Hollande will not stand for re-election when France votes in a presidential election in April and May.
France also made progress in its deficit reduction drive, taking the deficit to 3.4 percent of GDP, Insee said, although it missed its own 3.3 percent target.
But the finance ministry said it had "exactly" met recommendations from the European Commission, which has been pressuring Paris to bring its deficit to below three percent of GDP as required by eurozone rules.
"For the third consecutive year, France has scrupulously met its European commitments," Finance Minister Michel Sapin said in a statement sent to AFP.
Slow economic growth has hampered France's efforts to come into line with EU deficit rules and analysts have cast doubt on the government's promise to hit a deficit level below three percent of GDP this year.
Even the public finances auditor said in February that a three-percent deficit would be "hard to reach."
A recovery in France's public sector accounts is "still far off, and our public finances are still fragile and vulnerable", said the auditor's president, Didier Migaud.
He also called on presidential candidates to stick to the three-percent target after several said they wouldn't if they got elected.
Public debt, meanwhile, rose to 96 percent of GDP in 2016, up from 95.6 the previous year, moving even further away from the eurozone debt ceiling of 60 percent.
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