In February 2025, French household consumption continued its downward trend, slipping by 0.1 percent in volume following a 0.8 percent decline in January, while it slipped by 0.3 percent over the year. The main drag came from a 0.7 percent drop in food consumption, particularly agri-food products, which erased January's gains. Compared to February 2024, food consumption was 1.8 percent lower, and tobacco use also continued to decline sharply, suggesting ongoing shifts in consumption habits.

Despite this, there were modest signs of resilience in other areas. The consumption of engineered goods increased by 0.2 percent, driven by modest rebounds in durable goods (0.4 percent) and textiles and clothing (0.5 percent). Within durable goods, purchases of transport equipment, notably new cars, rose 0.9 percent, although this was still a muted response following January's sharp decline.

Energy consumption also nudged up by 0.2 percent, driven by a 1.0 percent rise in refined product spending. However, spending on electricity and other non-refined energy items dipped slightly, reflecting potential behavioural adjustments in response to price changes or weather conditions.

Altogether, the picture reflects cautious household spending, with consumers tightening food budgets while showing a tentative return to purchasing durable and textile goods. Persistent weakness in non-essential spending, such as medical goods, indicates continued economic caution. This latest update leaves the RPI at minus 14 and the RPI-P at minus 10, meaning that economic activities are slightly behind market expectations of the French economy.

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.