Confidence amongst French manufacturers improved slightly in October with the INSEE gauge rising to the 98-point mark after a reading of 97 in September.
The reading was in line with the consensus estimate of 98.
The survey's improvement was explained by a significantly more favourable assessment of past production levels (from -11 to -2) and, to a lesser extent, domestic orders (from -26 to -24), due to a mild pick up in both domestic and foreign orders, economists at Unicredit explained in a note to clients.
The barometer measuring the general production outlook also improved, to -5 from -10.
"Encouragingly, industry's prospects were seen steadily improving and exceeding their long-term average for the first time since July 2011. [...] This supports our confidence that gross domestic product will regain traction already in the fourth quarter, after a temporary slowdown (from +0.5% to +0.1% quarter-on-quarter) in the third quarter," the Italian broker pointed out.
Source: LiveCharts
The reading was in line with the consensus estimate of 98.
The survey's improvement was explained by a significantly more favourable assessment of past production levels (from -11 to -2) and, to a lesser extent, domestic orders (from -26 to -24), due to a mild pick up in both domestic and foreign orders, economists at Unicredit explained in a note to clients.
The barometer measuring the general production outlook also improved, to -5 from -10.
"Encouragingly, industry's prospects were seen steadily improving and exceeding their long-term average for the first time since July 2011. [...] This supports our confidence that gross domestic product will regain traction already in the fourth quarter, after a temporary slowdown (from +0.5% to +0.1% quarter-on-quarter) in the third quarter," the Italian broker pointed out.
Source: LiveCharts
