Data released by national statistics institute Insee released on Friday showed French economy grew by 0.5 percent for April-June period for the third consecutive quarter.

The second quarter-performance stemmed mainly from exports which recorded 3.1-percent growth compared with 0.7-percent fall over the January-March period.

But imports "significantly" slowed down to 0.2 percent during the period.

Overall, the foreign trade contributed to GDP growth by 0.8 percent.

Households consumption, one of France's main growth engine, stood at 0.3 percent in the second quarter after a tepid rise a quarter earlier, while 0.9-percent rise in manufacturing output pulled the total production of goods and services up by 0.8 percent, according to Insee figures.

For the whole year of 2017, Insee expects French gross domestic product to be at 1.4 percent, beyond 1.1 percent recorded a year earlier, but below government target of 1.5 percent.