Household consumption of manufacturing goods experienced a notable decline of 0.7 percent after a sharply downward revised 0.3 percent rise in May. Year-over-year, household consumption of manufacturing goods dropped 1.5 percent. This downturn was largely driven by a significant reduction in energy consumption, which plummeted by 1.9 percent, and a 0.7 percent decrease in food consumption due to widespread reductions across various food items, including a significant drop in tobacco consumption.

Engineered goods consumption showed resilience with a 0.4 percent rise compared to May when it fell by 1.9 percent. Within this category, durable goods rebounded by 0.5 percent, driven by higher purchases of transport equipment like cars. Textile and clothing expenditures also saw a robust 1.0 percent rebound, spurred by increased spending on clothing, footwear, and leather goods. However, the other engineered goods category slightly dipped by 0.2 percent, mainly due to a drop in perfume purchases.

Overall, the month of June was a mixed month for household consumption, characterized by declines in essential goods offset by gains in discretionary spending on engineered goods. The French RPI now stands at 6 and the RPI-P at 4. Both readings show overall economic activity modestly outperforming market forecasts.

Spending is seen falling 0.4 percent on the month, reversing only a fraction of May's 1.5 percent bounce.

Consumption of manufactured goods by consumers is an indicator of consumer spending for household durable goods such as autos and furniture. The data are released separately as part of the report on total goods spending.

This indicator is a measure of retail sales and is unique to France. It measures consumer spending for household durable goods such as autos and furniture. The data are seasonally and workday adjusted. These adjustments eliminate the fluctuations that are solely due to changes in the number of working days. The data appear to be particularly sensitive to the number of worked Saturdays. With consumer spending a large part of the economy, market players continually monitor spending patterns. Retail sales are a measure of consumer well-being.

The pattern in consumer spending is often the foremost influence on stock and bond markets. For stocks, strong economic growth translates to healthy corporate profits and higher stock prices. For bonds, the focus is whether economic growth goes overboard and leads to inflation. Ideally, the economy walks that fine line between strong growth and excessive (inflationary) growth.

Retail sales not only give you a sense of the big picture, but also the trends among different types of retailers. Perhaps auto sales are especially strong or apparel sales are showing exceptional weakness. These trends from the retail sales data can help you spot specific investment opportunities, without having to wait for a company's quarterly or annual report.