PARIS, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The head of the main French employers lobby group warned on Tuesday that France faced a serious economic slowdown despite official data showing the country had narrowly avoided recession in the third quarter.
Laurence Parisot, head of the Medef employers association, drew up a bleak portrait of the euro zone's second biggest economy, which grew by 0.14 percent in the third quarter, according to official data last week.
The French data contrasted with separate figures showing that Germany had fallen into recession, usually defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, but Parisot said France would not resist for long.
"If you just look at the industrial sector, we are already in recession," she said.
"Paid employment is down. It had already fallen in the second quarter, it fell again in the third quarter, that's the second worrying sign," she said.
"Thirdly, business has fallen dramatically in a certain number of sectors, that's true of construction and for the whole automobile sector but other sectors have also been hit, I'm thinking for example of temporary employment."
She also pointed to the "dizzying figures" behind France's ballooning trade deficit, which exceeded 40 billion euros in the first nine months of the year, wider than the level in the whole of 2007.
Parisot, the main spokesperson for French business, said firms were finding it hard to raise funds as banks clamped down on lending.
"Everything shows that the hardening in credit is open," She said. "Today, credit volumes to firms have fallen by 50 percent in nine months which is weighing considerably on investment."
"We have unfortunately good reasons to fear a reversal in corporate investment which could be quite marked," she said.
Parisot's comments came on the day a poll published in the daily le Monde showed 64 percent of people expected France to suffer a long-lasting recession. (Reporting by Marc Joanny, writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Ron Askew)