French consumer confidence posts surprise gain in October

French consumer confidence surprised to the upside in November, underlining the solid prospects for household spending at the end of 2019, the results of a closely-followed survey revealed.

INSEE's French consumer confidence index jumped from a reading of 104.0 for October to 10.6.0 in November, easily surpassing forecasts for a dip to 103.0.

Commenting on the data, Claus Vistesen at Pantheon Macroeconomics described the improvement in the index as "solid" and attributed the gains to a combination of recent tax cuts and slower inflation.

"These are solid data, indicating that the recent flare-up of the "yellow vest” protests, partly due to the looming strikes in response the unpopular pension reform, are not fazing French households," he said.

"And why would it. Real wage growth has accelerated thanks to tax cuts and slower headline inflation, and the labour market remains strong overall, especially in the private sector."

Vistesen's forecast was consumer spennding for the month of October to reveal a 1.0% month-on-month jump, although in year-on-year terms, the data were expected to reveal a more tame rise of 0.5%.

To take note of, small improvements were seen in responses for all the main survey categories, including those for Frenchmen's expectations for their personal finances, ability to save, opportunities to make purchases and for income levels in France.