French Dec Consumer Spending +2.1% MM; +5.9% YY

Asia-Pacific exchange net America 2010-01-26 17:14:21

French consumer spending was boosted in December by a rush to buy cars ahead of the planned phasing-out of the government's car scrapping scheme starting from January, data released Tuesday by French national statistics office showed.

In December, consumer spending increased 2.1% from November and rose 5.9% from a year earlier, which was above expectations. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast consumer spending to rise 0.6% on the month and 3.7% on the year.

Also, consumer spending in November was revised upwards and grew 0.1% on the month, from an initial estimate of a 0.1% monthly drop, Insee noted.

In December, French households rushed to buy cars as car spending surged 9.1% on the month, increasing 31.8% on the year.

Spending on durable goods therefore increased 4.3% in December from November and increased 16.4% on the year as car spending helped to compensate for a 0.1% monthly drop in home equipment spending. On the year, spending on home equipment increased 5.2%.

Spending on clothes and leather products in December rose 2.0% on the month and 1.8% on the year, while spending in other manufactured goods such as car parts, pharmaceutical products, books, cosmetics increased 0.5% both on the month and on the year, Insee said.

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