30 October 2015

2015- n° 265

Household consumption of goods was stable in September and grew by 0.7% over the third quarter Household consumption expenditure on goods - September 2015

In September 2015, household consumption expenditure stagnated (after +0.1% in August, in volume*). Purchases of durable goods increased strongly (+1.4%), buoyed by car purchases (+2.3%). On the contrary, food consumption kept declining. Expenditure on energy was virtually stable (–0.1%). Over the third quarter, household consumption bouced back by 0.7% after –0.1% over the second quarter.

In September, consumption of engineered goods increased again (+0.7% after +0.2% in August). It gained 1.1% over the third quarter.

In September 2015, expenditure on durable goods recorded its highest rise (+1.4%) since the beginning of the year. It was led by car purchases which accelerated (+2.3% after +0.3% in August). Consumption of jewellery also increased. However, expenditure on household durables stepped back slightly (–0.3%): the dynamism of household appliances expenditure was offset by the strong downturn of furnitures purchases. Over the third quarter, expenditure on durable goods grew by 1.0%.

In September, expenditure on textile, clothing and leather dipped (–0.4%) after a stability in August. This drop comes mainly from shoes purchases. However, over the third quarter, expenditure on clothing increased sharply (+2.0%).

[* Volumes are chained and all figures are trading days and seasonally adjusted.]

Expenditure on other engineered goods increased slightly in September (+0.3%). In particular, expenditure on hardware recovered, while consumption of perfume fell back sligthly. Over the third quarter, the increase of other engineered goods was also moderate (+0.4 %).

Food products consumption went down for the third consecutive month (–0.6% in September), mainly because of meat consumption. All in all, food products purchases declined sligthly over the third quarter (–0.2%).

Energy consumption was virtually stable in September (–0.1%). Expenditure on gas and electricity increased strongly. However, domestic oil consumption dropped significantly, after a sharp increase in August. Over the whole quarter, expenditure on energy increased by 1.6%.

The variation of household expenditure on goods in August 2015 is scaled up slightly: +0.1% instead of 0.0%. Indeed, since the previous publication, new information has been integrated, and the seasonal adjustment coefficients have been updated.