The French tightened their belts in January. According to INSEE, household consumption of goods fell sharply in January in France, by 1.5% over one month.
According to INSEE, this sluggishness is linked to a further decline in the consumption of manufactured goods. These sales fell by 2.3% in January after a month of December also down by 0.7%. “This sharp decline is mainly due to consumption in clothing,” said INSEE. Indeed, spending on textile clothing fell by 14% in January (after + 4.6% in December), “particularly because spending was significantly lower than in previous years during the winter sales”, specifies the organism.
In addition, food consumption also fell (-1.2% after +1.4%), particularly for agri-food and agricultural products, especially meat, the consumption of which fell sharply.
On the other hand, energy consumption remained almost stable (-0.1%), a figure that hides a sharp drop in fuel consumption but a rebound in that of electricity and gas. Finally, purchases of durable goods rebounded slightly with +0.8% after –3.3% in December. “This increase is mainly due to the rebound in purchases of capital goods for housing, which remain above their pre-crisis level,” adds INSEE. Even spending on transport equipment is also rebounding, under the effect of “the increase in purchases of demonstration vehicles and despite a decrease in sales of new cars”, underlines INSEE.