5 January 2012

2012- n° 6
In December 2011, households’ confidence about the economic situation was stable Monthly consumer confidence survey - December 2011

In December 2011, households’ confidence about the economic situation was stable: the synthetic confidence index was the same as in November and remained at its lowest level since december 2008.

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Personal situation
Financial situation: decreasing
Savings: increasing
Economic situation in France
General economic situation in France: more optimistic expectations
Future unemployment: stable but still pessimistic expectations
Inflation’s appreciation: almost stable
Synthetic confidence index yearly revision

In December 2011, households’ confidence about the economic situation was stable: the synthetic confidence index was the same as in November and remained at its lowest level since december 2008.

Personal situation

Financial situation: decreasing

In December, households appreciation of their past and future financial situation decreased: both corresponding balances lost 2 points each. Their major purchases intentions were stable compared with November.

Savings: increasing

In December, households’ opinion about their current saving capacity is the same as in November. The one about their savings capacity in the next 12 months was almost stable : the corresponding balance lost 1 point compared with November.

On the other hand, households considered it more opportune than in November to save: the corresponding balance of opinion increased by 2 points.

graphiqueGraph1_english – Consumer synthetic index

tableauTab_eng – CONSUMER OPINION: synthetic index and opinion balances

Balance of responses, seasonally ajusted

CONSUMER OPINION: synthetic index and opinion balances (Balance of responses, seasonally ajusted)
		2011
	Average (1)	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.
Synthetic index (2)	100	81	83	80	80
Financial sit., past 12 m.	–18	–29	–28	–29	–31
Financial sit., next 12 m.	–3	–25	–24	–28	–30
Current saving capacity	12	16	19	17	17
Expected saving capacity	–10	–13	–9	–13	–14
Savings intentions, next 12 m.	20	16	18	15	17
Major purchases intentions, next 12 m.	–14	–26	–23	–26	–26
General economic sit., past 12 m.	–41	–76	–75	–75	–74
General economic sit., next 12 m.	–23	–59	–56	–64	–62
Unemployment, next 12 m.	34	69	59	69	69
Consumer prices, past 12 m.	–17	16	12	11	12
Consumer prices, next 12 m.	–34	–17	–21	–10	–11

(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).

Economic situation in France

General economic situation in France: more optimistic expectations

In December, households’opinion about the expected general economic situation in France rose by 2 points, after having reached its lowest historical level in November. The one about the past general economic situation was almost stable (+1 point). Both balances of opinion remained clearly below their long-term averages.

Future unemployment: stable but still pessimistic expectations

In December, households were as numerous as in November to forecast an increase in unemployment. The level of this balance remained much higher than in early 2011.

Inflation’s appreciation: almost stable

After a decline started in spring (-24 points between April and November), households’ opinion about past inflation satbilized in December (+1 point). Their forecasts about inflation are almost stable too (-1 point).

Synthetic confidence index yearly revision

Once a year, for December publication, the synthetic confidence index weights are updated in order to take into account the past year data. Hence minor revisions concerning the historical data of the index, with no impact on the balances of opinion that compose it.