French Consumer Spending Declines on Unemployment, European Growth Outlook
French consumer spending (FRSNMANM) slid in November as surging joblessness and concern about the European debt crisis prompted households to cut back.
Spending fell 0.1 percent from October, when it rose a revised 0.1 percent, national statistics office Insee said today in an e-mailed statement. Spending fell 2.1 percent from the year-earlier period.
Stagnant household demand reflects concern about earning prospects amid rising joblessness and mounting concern that the euro area is entering a recession. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s renewed effort to trim the budget deficit at a time when Europe’s debt crisis is hurting confidence may restrain spending growth in the months ahead, economists have said.
“The French economy is likely to have stalled in the last quarter of 2011 given the sharp deterioration in confidence across the board,” according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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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