29 May 2015

2015- n° 128

In April 2015, household consumption of goods was virtually stable (+0.1%) Household consumption expenditure on goods - April 2015

In April 2015, household consumption expenditure on goods was virtually stable: +0.1% in volume*, after –0.7% in March. In detail, consumption of food goods remained dynamic (+0.4% in April after +0.5%), while expenditure on durables stepped back (–0.4% after +1.0%).

Household expenditure on durable goods stepped back in April (–0.4% after +1.0% in March). Expenditure on household durables dropped slightly again (–0.2%, as in March). Car purchases were almost stable (+0.1%), after a sharp increase in March (+1.5%).

Consumption of textile, clothing and leather recovered in April (+1.3%) after a marked decline in March (–5.1%).

Consumption expenditure on other engineered goods decreased slightly in April (–0.2%), notably in perfumes, after being stable in March.

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

In April, consumption of food products remained dynamic (+0.4% after +0.5% in March), especially due to meat products consumption.

In April, household consumption of energy products decreased slightly (–0.3%), after a sharp drop in March (–3.3%). A rise of fuel consumption was indeed almost totally offset by a decrease of gas and electricity expenditure.

Household consumption of goods is scaled down by 0.1 point in March, now estimated at –0.7% instead of –0.6% within the previous publication, due notably to clothing.

This revision arised especially from the fitting of the sub-annual accounts on new annual accounts which were revised with the estimation of the provisional account of the year 2014, from the reestimation of calendar and seasonal adjustment and calibration models, as well as from the integration of new information on the indicators commonly used.