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FR: Consumer Mfgd Goods Consumption
| Actual | Previous | Revised | |
| Month over Month | -1.7% | 1.0% | 1.1% |
| Year over Year | -0.9% | 2.0% |
Highlights
Consumers reduced their spending on manufactured products in February by the largest margin since January 2025, contracting 1.7 percent in February, month-on-month, erasing a 1.1 percent increase the month before, while it was 0.9 percent less than a year ago.
Spending was lower across all sub-components, with durable goods sales down 1.8 percent from last month. Household durables recorded a 2.6 percent decline, with textiles and clothing down 4.0 percent, wiping out respective gains in January of 0.8 percent and 3.6 percent. While that could be seen as a pullback from earlier spending, it reflects a cautious consumer. Either way, it doesn't bode well for the consumer supporting economic growth.
Energy spending saw a 2.4 percent decline in February, month-on-month, after a 1.2 percent contraction the month before. It's highly probable that spending on energy will increase significantly in March due to the situation in the Middle East. That will eat into discretionary spending which could manifest itself into a continued decline for durables and textiles.
Overall spending which includes energy and food fell 1.4 percent month-on-month in February while it was 1.5 percent lower year-on-year, well reflecting the impact of energy on spending. But the time of cheap energy is over for then time being.
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.