France's central bank forecast meagre first-quarter economic growth on Monday, while the country's statistics office said industrial output began the year on a weak footing due to a slowdown in energy production, reports Reuters.
The Bank of France predicted the euro zone's second-biggest economy would eke out growth of just 0.2 percent in the first three months of the year, reiterating a previous estimate.
That would mark a slight slowdown from the final quarter of last year, when the economy grew 0.3 percent in an uptick that suggested a nascent economic recovery had taken hold.
The government of President Francois Hollande is counting on economic momentum picking up throughout 2014 to help reduce unemployment, and the weakness of the recovery may prove disappointing.
Statistics agency INSEE said on Monday that industrial production fell 0.2 percent in January.
That was far short of the consensus forecast for 0.2 percent growth in a Reuters poll of 20 economists.
Read more of this report from Reuters.