French Consumer Confidence Declines on Higher Energy Prices
French consumer confidence fell to an eight-month low in March as surging energy costs sapped spending power and President Nicolas Sarkozy readied a new wealth tax.
An index of sentiment fell to 83 from 85 in February, national statistics office Insee said today in an e-mailed statement. That was the lowest reading since July.
With oil prices up more than 40 percent in a year, French motorists are paying more for gasoline while the government is planning electricity-price increases for later this year. That’s slashing spending power at a time when joblessness remains stuck near a seven-year high.
Sarkozy’s government is preparing an overhaul of a tax on the nation’s wealthiest households and the anti-immigration National Front is surging in opinion polls.
“The higher oil price, combined with the current political climate and an impending tax reform concerning affluent households” are weighing on sentiment, said Pierre-Olivier Beffy, chief economist at Exane BNP Paribas in Paris.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Deen in Paris at markdeen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net
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