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PARIS, July 22 (Reuters) - French consumer spending was better than expected in June, Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday, shortly before the data was due to be released.
The report from national statistics office INSEE will be out at 0645 GMT. A Reuters survey of analysts forecasts a rise of 0.3 percent after a fall of 0.2 percent in May.
Lagarde said she saw some encouraging signs in the economy.
"In France, in May we had industrial production which rebounded. We have an auto sector which is holding up," she said on France 2 television.
"We will have the figure in an hour, we are going to have consumption for June clearly better than expected...after a slight rise in consumption in the first quarter we are going to have an improvement in consumption in the second quarter."
She said there were signs that the economic decline had stabilised in many industrial countries.
"What I am seeing in a lot of industrial countries today, is a slight improvement, a slowdown in the decline. In some countries it is even improving and growth will probably come from places we didn't imagine," she said.
"China's stimulus plan in particular is succeeding in such a way that the Chinese domestic market is in the process of getting stronger and the pickup could well come from the East rather than the West. I note as well that the United States as well is very slightly improving."
The government is forecasting an economic contraction of 3 percent this year in France before returning to modest growth of 0.5 percent in 2010.
(Reporting by Anna Willard; Editing by Neil Fullick)