France: Business confidence points to growth stability in 3Q - ING

Julien Manceaux, Senior Economist at ING, notes that figures published by INSEE show that French business confidence remained stable in both the manufacturing and service sector in June.

Key Quotes

“In the industry, business confidence has been stable in the second quarter as a whole (109.5), slightly below 4Q17 and 1Q18. However, manufacturing companies are losing confidence in the general outlook (this component is down from its January peak and back at last year’s level).”

“All in all, the picture remains fairly positive for activity in the manufacturing sector, although less than in the beginning of the year.”

“All in all, the June confidence survey is showing that we can only count on a limited rebound of GDP in the third quarter. The extend of the slowdown (and of the strikes’ impact) in the second quarter of 2018 will therefore be key to determine this year’s growth.”