The French depressed, household confidence at its lowest level in thirteen years

It hadn't gone this low in thirteen years. Personal financial situation, prospects, employment… It seems like it’s a loser for many French people. This is evidenced by household confidence which plunges like never before, or almost, a confidence which falls in October to find itself at its lowest, as in June 2013, INSEE announced this Tuesday.

To summarize this, A 80, the indicator which summarizes this confidence, has lost five points this month, well below its long-term average of 100, specifies the National Institute of Statistics. This deterioration is firstly explained by a clear deterioration in households' judgment of their own financial situation, explains INSEE. The balance of opinion between positive and negative opinions on their future financial situation fell by nine points in October, while that concerning their recent situation fell by six points.

The standard of living indicator at its lowest ever The French are also more pessimistic about the evolution of the national economy. Opinion on the future standard of living in France fell by six points during the month, while that on the recent standard of living lost three points. This last indicator has even reached its lowest point since the launch of the survey in October 1972, underlines INSEE.

In this context, fears linked to unemployment are growing. The balance measuring expectations of changes in unemployment gained five points in October, moving further away from its long-term average. Fewer households also consider it appropriate to make major purchases, with the corresponding indicator falling by four points.

The savings climate remains relatively favorable, even if it continues to deteriorate. The corresponding synthetic indicator lost two points, to 118, a level however significantly higher than its historical average. But the share of households believing that it is appropriate to save has decreased for the second consecutive month, with a drop of six points, while their opinion on their future saving capacity has fallen by three points.

At the same time, concerns about inflation are growing. The proportion of households judging that prices have increased significantly over the last twelve months has increased again, with the associated balance of opinion gaining eight points after an increase of six points in September. Inflation expectations for the next twelve months also increased, with a gain of two points.

INSEE indicates that it has revised downwards by one point the synthetic indicator and the savings climate for September. The institute specifies that the responses of some 2,000 households used for the October survey were collected between September 25 and October 19.

Machine-translated from French