In May 2011, households’ confidence is almost stable

In May 2011, household’s confidence about the economic situation is almost stable : the synthetic confidence index is gains 1 point with respect to April.

Personnal situation

Financial situation : almost stable

In May, households appreciation of their past financial situation remains unchanged. Their expectations slightly improves (+1 point), but remains below its long term average. On the contrary, households’ opinion on the timeliness to make major purchases loses 4 points.

Savings : slightly improving

Households’ opinion about their current saving capacity slightly improves in May (+1 point); so does their appreciation of their savings capacity in the next 12 months. (+2 points).

The opinion on the timeliness for savings is still relatevely high: after a sharp increase in April, the conrresponding balance of opinion loses 1 point. It thus remains notably above its long term average.

Consumer synthetic index

CONSUMER OPINION: synthetic index and opinion balances
		2011
Balance of responses, seasonally ajusted
(1) Average value between January 1987 and December 2010
(2) This indicator is normalised in such a way that its average equals 100 and standard error equals 10 over the estimation period (1987-2010).
	Average (1)	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.	May
Synthetic index (2)	100	85	83	83	84
Financial sit., past 12 m.	–17	–26	–27	–29	–29
Financial sit., next 12 m.	–2	–19	–23	–21	–20
Current saving capacity	11	13	14	13	14
Expected saving capacity	–9	–13	–14	–16	–14
Savings intentions, next 12 m.	20	23	23	29	28
Major purchases intentions, next 12 m.	–13	–22	–24	–24	–28
General economic sit., past 12 m.	–40	–68	–68	–69	–67
General economic sit., next 12 m.	–21	–50	–52	–55	–49
Unemployment, next 12 m.	33	49	38	39	31
Consumer prices, past 12 m.	–19	16	22	35	27
Consumer prices, next 12 m.	–35	–8	9	0	–15

Economic situation in France

General economic situation in France : markedly improving

Households opinion about the past and expected general economic situation in France improves with respect to April : the corresponding balances gain 2 and 6 points respectively. Nevertheless, these balances remain notably below their long term average.

Future unemployment: positive outlooks

In May, households are much less numerous to forecast an increase in unemployment (–8 point). This balance of opinion has lost 18 points since February, catching up with its long term average.

Inflation’s appreciation: notably steps back

In May, households appreciation of past inflation loses 8 points, putting an end to several month of increase. The expected inflation balance of opinion falls off again (-15 points). Nevertheless, these two balances remain much higher than their long term average.

Balances on personnal financial situation and general economic situation