French growth stalled in the second quarter, underlining the fragile footing of the economy even before British voters dealt the region its latest blow by opting to leave the European Union. Gross domestic product failed to expand in the three months through June, compared with revised growth of 0.7 percent in the previous period, national statistics office Insee said Friday. Economists expected a 0.2 percent increase, a Bloomberg survey showed. French data, skewed by a strike at refineries, are the first to offer a glimpse of the euro-area performance in the quarter, with Spain scheduled to report GDP figures at 9 a.m. local time and a first estimate for the euro zone scheduled for 11 a.m. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said last week that visibility is low in the aftermath of Britain’s June 23 vote, though he remains ready to act in the months ahead should the separation damp growth or delay the return of inflation to the institution’s goal. “What we’re getting is a snapshot of the economy before the impact of Brexit,” said Gilles Moec, chief European economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London. “The ECB is more interested in what the third quarter is going to look like and whether there is any sign of Brexit taking a toll.” Surveys suggested so far that the impact on the broader European economy remains muted. Euro-area economic confidence unexpectedly improved in July, with the European Commission reporting Thursday that an index of business and consumer sentiment rose to 104.6 from 104.4 the previous month. That could undermine arguments for the ECB to extend its bond-purchase program beyond March 2017 or tweak its terms. While Draghi has previously told euro-area finance ministers that Brexit could cut half a percentage point from growth over three years, that calculation was based on an assumption of weaker trade that he cast doubt on at a July 22 press conference in Frankfurt. “With Brexit, there’s the trade channel, but is it the most relevant?” he said. “One would rather think of confidence or financial-services channels.” For France itself, economists are dismissing the second-quarter slowdown after GDP registered its strongest increase in almost three years in the January-March period. Growth in the three months through June was wiped out as a draw down of inventories more than offset a positive contribution from trade, Insee said. “If I look at France right now, I see no reason to be particularly pessimistic, nor any reason to be particularly optimistic,” Moec said before the data were published. “A lot of what had really dented French growth for a long time, notably a lack of competitiveness and more recently big tax hikes, is slowly being absorbed.” President Francois Hollande’s administration has cut taxes on businesses by about 40 billion euros over the course of five years in order to improve competitiveness. The trade deficit of the euro area’s second-largest economy was almost eliminated in 2015, and the nation’s share of export markets stopped a decade-long decline, according to the Bank of France.