French business sentiment steady in April

Business confidence in France was steady in April amid improved conditions in the factory sector, offset by a slip in service sector confidence.

INSEE's headline business confidence index was unchanged in April from the month before at 104.0 and in-line with economists' forecasts.

A gauge of confidence in the manufacturing sector improved, rising from a reading of 105.0 for March to 108.0 in April.

The improvement was flattered by a sharp increase in 'past activity' index, Claus Visten, chief Eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics pointed out.

However, the more forward-looking components also improved, with the new orders to inventory ratio gaining on the back of a stronger flow of new orders, alongside an improvement in firms' own production expectations.

The services sector sub-index on the other hand slipped from 104.0 to 103.0.