French business leaders showed more pessimism about the economy and manufacturing activity in January, with the monthly sentiment indicator declined to 91, three points down from December, the national statistics bureau Insee said Monday.

The businessmen's sentiment to their past activity in January dropped by two points from December to minus 7 points with the "total and export order books decrease and are rated as very low," Insee showed in a report.

Attitudes toward the personal production outlook, deteriorated also to minus 37 points as French manufacturers expected that the domestic manufacturing industry would fall in the next months below its long-term average, it added.

France, one of eurozone powerhouses, has been into the firing line of the region's escalating crisis due to mounting worries about its high fiscal deficit and banks' exposure to other troubled European sovereign debt.

In previous report, the Insee said France would slid into recession as it expected the country's growth to contract by 0.2 percent during the last three months of this year and shrink a further 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2012 before rising slightly 0.1 percent in the second quarter of next year.

France, the eurozone second largest economy, wants to accelerate growth by 1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012. It targets to trim the budget deficit to 4.5 percent of GDP in 2012 and 3 percent in 2013.