France Business Confidence Improves On Hopes Of Brief Economic Slowdown

Confidence among French manufacturers improved further at the start of the year, underpinned by an improvement in the assessment of past production and foreign order books, amid expectations that the recent downturn in the economy would be short-lived, results of two separate surveys showed Tuesday.

The manufacturing confidence index rose to 103 in January from 102 in December, monthly survey results from the statistical office INSEE showed.

The sub-index measuring manufacturers' views towards past production rose to 11.0 in January from 8.0 in the previous month, while the overall order book balance dropped to -17 from -15, which was the lowest level since March 2021.

However, the foreign order book balance rose by 3 points to -12 from -15 in December.

General production expectations weakened slightly in January, with the corresponding index rising -7 from -6, while personal production expectations of manufacturers strengthened to 17 from 16.