PARIS (Reuters) - - Marginal expansion in the French service sector during December helped underpin business activity, data compiler Markit said in a survey on Tuesday, while warning the economic climate remained tenuous.
Markit's overall PMI index, which includes the services and manufacturing sectors, rose to 49.7 from 47.9 in November, better than the preliminary "flash" result of 49.1 and the highest reading in nine months.
In the services sector alone, a final reading rose in December to 50.6 from 47.9 in November, better than the 49.8 originally reported.
For the first time since August, that index rose above the 50-point threshold dividing an expansion in activity from a contraction.
It was the best reading since March, when the index hit 51.5.
Markit Senior Economist Jack Kennedy said that while a firmer trend in new business and better expectations for the coming year were positives, "the overall health of the sector remains fragile amid a weak economic climate."
Recently announced deregulation measures by the government of Socialist Francois Hollande would be well received by businesses in the euro zone's second-biggest economy in 2015, Kennedy said.
But, he added, they were "just the first step on the road back to economic vigour and conditions are likely to remain challenging in the meantime."
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Toby Chopra)