The French economy has continued to grow in the first three months of 2002, underlining its relative immunity from the global economic slowdown.

France, which escaped the recession that hit Germany, the US and Japan late last year, saw a 0.4% rise in economic output quarter on quarter.

The figure represented a bounce back from the modest contraction seen at the end of last year.

"This is a very honourable performance," said Marc Touati, an economist at Natexis Banque Populaire.

"France is leading European growth."

Leader of the pack

Underpinning the figure is robust consumer spending, which continued to creep higher, despite taking a modest hit since 11 September.

Investment, especially by companies, is still slowing, however, and was up just 0.1% during the three months.

Nonetheless, France remains the liveliest major economy in Western Europe.

Germany only this week came out of its technical recession - defined as two successive quarters of negative growth - and the British economic growth rate is now zero.

Most European economies are now recovering from the slump seen late last year - driven mainly by events in the US.

But the Dutch economy is still shrinking, falling by 0.1% in the first quarter.