PARIS (Reuters) – The confidence of French customers fell in July amid symptoms of an uptick in COVID-19 infections, as fears about unemployment remained higher and others increasingly felt the need to save money, a monthly survey showed.
INSEE’s official statistics firm said Wednesday that its confidence rate had fallen to 94 since 96 reviewed in June, with no average forecast of 99 in a Reuters survey of economists’ expectations.
Knowledge highlights the difficulties the government, which has spent a lot on licensing to keep staff active, is persuading consumers to spend their own cash to pull the economy out of its more internal recession since World War II.
“There is no V-turn for family confidence in France,” tweeted economist Charles-Henri Colombier. “Unemployment is expected to rise until (the currency crisis) of 2008-09.”
Consumer confidence plummeted after President Emmanuel Macron placed France under one of Europe’s strictest coronavirus blockades in mid-March, but recovered after a stable easing of restrictions that began in mid-May.
The additional decline in July came when new COVID-19 infections erupted, leading France and some other European countries to impose new restrictions on public life. France made it mandatory to wear a mask in public that closed on 20 July.
Health Minister Olivier Veran said France was not yet facing a momentary wave that the epidemic was advancing and that citizens were not let their guard down.
Eurozone figures expected on Thursday are likely to show that France is alone. Quick knowledge of July 23 showed that customer confidence had deteriorated across the money block of those who are not married.
The INSEE survey showed that the number of other people who felt it was the right time to save jumped well above the long-term average, the third consecutive increase per month.
The number of families who had an idea of how to live had progressed over the next 12 months also declined for the third month in a row. Household considerations about unemployment eased, but remained first after reaching a seven-year high in June.
“Today’s figures verify that the magnitude of the uptick in economic activity in the third quarter will be decided basically through household consumption,” ING said in an information note.
It expects the eurozone’s second-largest economy to contract by 11% this year, with up to 800,000 jobs at risk.
Reporting through Richard Lough, edited through Larry King and Nick Macfie
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