27 November 2015

2015- n° 291

In October 2015, household consumption of goods fell back (–0.7%) Household consumption expenditure on goods - October 2015

In October 2015, household consumption expenditure declined by 0.7% in volume* thus experiencing its first decrease since March 2015. This downturn is primarily due to the drop in purchases of durable goods (–1.8% after +1.6%).

In October, consumption of engineered goods dwindled (–1.1% after +0.8% in September).

In October, expenditure on durable goods fell back substantially (–1.8% after +1,6%). Car purchases declined sharply (–3.4% after +2.6%). Nevertheless, expenditure on household durables sped up slightly (+0.5% after +0.1%), driven up by the rebound in furnitures purchases.

In October, expenditure on textile, clothing and leather decreased again (–1.0% after –0.4%).

Expenditure on other engineered goods rose for the third consecutive month (+0.2% in October), but slowed. More specifically, drug and perfume purchases went up, whereas expenditure on hardware fell back.

In October, food products consumption stabilized after decreasing for three months in a row.

Energy consumption went down again in October (–1.1% after –0.1%): expenditure on refined products, dropped for the second consecutive month, in line with domestic oil consumption and despite a rebound in diesel fuel purchases. Expenditure on gas and electricity declined slightly.

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