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FR: Consumer Mfgd Goods Consumption
| Actual | Previous | Revised | |
| Month over Month | -1.0% | -0.3% | 0.5% |
| Year over Year | -1.8% | 0.0% |
Highlights
Consumers pulled back on their spending on manufactured goods in December by 1.0 percent, after increasing their outlays by 0.5 percent in November. From a year-ago, expenditures are down 1.8 percent.
The decreased spending manifested itself in a 1.2 percent drop in outlays for consumer durable goods, a sharp reversal from the 0.4 percent seen in November. Compared to a year-ago, spending is down by 3.4 percent. Spending on household durables and those including transportation each fell 0.7 percent month-on-month. To be sure, there is some volatility around the data, as seen by the revisions.
Textiles and clothing also registered a decline, falling 2.1 percent in December after a 1.0 percent rise the month before.
As with the industrial sector, energy continues to be a volatile influence. After falling 2.0 percent month-on-month in November, spending rose 0.8 percent in December.
Todays earlier GDP report underscored consumer reluctance to spend and confirms the spending data in this report. There is still uncertainty surrounding the French budget coupled with continued volatility around US policies. Until consumers become more confident about the situation, they are likely to keep their purse strings tight which will be a drag on economic growth.
Definition
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.
Description
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.