Overview
- The INSEE consumer confidence index fell five points to 80, the agency said on Tuesday, October 27, marking its weakest reading since June 2013.
- Households reported sharply worse assessments of their past and future personal finances and of national living standards, with the balance on future finances down nine points.
- Perceptions that prices have risen and will keep rising climbed significantly, the sub-index for expected future prices moved up to minus seven, and fears about unemployment increased by five points.
- The October survey drew on responses from about 2,000 households collected between September 25 and October 19, and INSEE revised September slightly downward.
- Despite a still-elevated saving-climate indicator at 118, fewer people say it is a good time for major purchases, a shift that risks further weakening consumption and complicating policy choices for the government and the European Central Bank.