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In October 2012, households’ confidence keeps declining (-1 point)

In October 2012, households’ confidence in the economic situation slighlty decreased with respect to September. The synthetic confidence index lost 1 point, continuing the decline since May (-7 points) and remained below its long term average.

Personal situation

Financial situation: declining

In October, households appreciation of their future financial situation lost 4 points. Their opinion on their past financial situation was stable, as were their opinion on the timeliness to make major purchases. These three balances remained below their long term averages.

Savings: increasing

Households’ opinion about their current savings capacity was broadly stable in October (-1 point), and their opinion about their savings capacity in the next 12 months was also almost stable (+1 point); both corresponding balances remained above their long-term averages.

Households judged October to be a more suitable moment to save than September (+3 points), continuing last summer rise (+7 points between July and September); the corresponding balance remained above its long-term average.

Consumer synthetic index

Consumer synthetic index
CONSUMER OPINION: synthetic index and opinion balances
Balance of responses, seasonally ajusted
(1) Average value between January 1987 and December 2011
(2) This indicator is normalised in such a way that its average equals 100 and standard error equals 10 over the estimation period (1987-2011).
(3) The estimate of August comes from the linear interpolation of data resulted from July and September surveys.
2012
Average (1) July August (3) Sept. Oct.
Synthetic index (2) 100 87 86 85 84
Financial sit., past 12 m. –19 –27 –28 –29 –29
Financial sit., next 12 m. –3 –20 –21 –21 –25
Current saving capacity 7 13 15 18 17
Expected saving capacity –10 –6 –5 –5 –4
Savings intentions, next 12 m. 18 24 27 31 34
Major purchases intentions, next 12 m. –13 –26 –28 –29 –29
General economic sit., past 12 m. –41 –69 –72 –77 –73
General economic sit., next 12 m. –22 –45 –51 –56 –59
Unemployment, next 12 m. 31 67 69 73 71
Consumer prices, past 12 m. –13 –3 2 4 2
Consumer prices, next 12 m. –35 –24 –19 –14 –15

Economic situation in France

Financial situation : weakening expectations

In October, households’ opinion about future general economic situation in France lost 3 points with respect to September, and 28 points with respect to June, thus reaching its lowest historical value of November 2011. Nevertheless their opinion about past general economic situation in France improved by 4 points in October. These balances remained clearly below their long-term averages.

Future unemployment: expectations slightly decreasing but still high

Households were less numerous in October than in September to forecast an increase in unemployment. After an increase of 26 between May and September this balance of opinion declined by 2 points but remained significantly above its long-term average.

Inflation’s appreciation: slowly decreasing

In October households are more numerous to estimate a slowing inflation : the corresponding balance lost 2 points. Their opinion on future inflation was broadly steady (-1 point) and remained above their long term averages.

Balances on personnal financial situation and gen-eral economic situation

Balances on personnal financial situation and gen-eral economic situation

Households' unemployment expectations

Households' unemployment expectations

Households' perception of prices

Households' perception of prices

Informations Rapides

n° 267 - October 26, 2012

Monthly consumer confidence survey - October 2012

Next issue June 27, 2013 08:45 - June 2013

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