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 EN FRANCAIS

ECONOMIC SENTIMENT INDICATORS: DECEMBER 2007

FRANCE’s Economic Sentiment indicator fell 1 point to 109.3 impacted by a serious decline of its Industrial Sentiment indicator -57 points (production expectation, assessment of order books, assessment of stocks of finished products) reflecting a slow down in order books rescinding from November strong rebound. In the Euro area, the Economic Sentiment Indicator stayed stable at 104.7 although the Industrial Indicator revealed that only Luxembourg and Finland remain confident with increasing order books. Out of the EU 27, only six member states recorded higher Economic Sentiment Indicators (Denmark , Estonia , Italy , Romania, Slovenia, and Sweden ) and the Industrial Indicator a lesser five optimistic member states: Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Finland.

Source: Eurostat

Source: Eurostat

Capacity Utilization in the manufacturing industry in FRANCE however reached a record high 87.6 in the last quarter, slightly higher than Germany’s 87 and well above the Euro area 84.2 A total ten Western member states, (including France) either increased or maintained their capacity utilization (Germany, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden) compared with only five east European member states recording an increase, (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia) corroborating thus that order books had shifted in favor of Western Europe. The strongest declines were recorded by Estonia at 74.9 , Hungary at 84.1 and Romania at 78.6.

Source: Eurostat

By contrast with rather tamed indicators FRANCE’s Retail Trade Confidence Indicator (present business situation, future business situation, assessment of stocks) stayed upbeat and rose to 10.4 compared with 5.4 in November despite a record low Consumer Confidence indicator and high stocks. In the Euro area the indicator declined to 0.6 from 2 pushed down by most member states and in the EU 27 to 1.8 from 3.7. The strongest declines involved Belgium, Germany, Spain, Austria, Sweden and the UK. Only Bulgaria and Greece recorded a higher indicator compared with the previous month respectively to 26.2 from 22.6 and to 33.8 from 32.5

Source: Eurostat

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