French household consumption of manufactured goods fell by 0.3 per cent in December after rising by 0.6 per cent in the previous month, the national statistics office INSEE said today.
In November, household consumption was revised lower from a provisional gain of 0.8 percent, the Institut National des Statistiques Economiques et Etudes said.
For the full year however, domestic consumption rose by 3.5 per cent, just below INSEE's forecast of 3.6 per cent.
December's figure was 2.4 per cent higher than the figure for the year-ago period. But compared with November, sales of household goods dropped by 0.3 percent and auto sales were also down by one percent.
Durable goods in general marked a 0.6 per cent decrease in sales.
Following two successive months of growth, spending on "other manufactured products" such as drugs, auto parts, books, home improvement equipment and jewelry, was down by 0.8 per cent.
But clothing sales picked up, showing an increase of 1.2 per cent after dropping by 1.4 per cent in November.
AFP