France: First signs of 2020 fragility – ING

Julien Manceaux, senior economist at ING, points out that the last Bank of France activity indicators painted a mixed picture of the French economy as it declined from 97.3 to 96.5 in December, the main indicator ended the year below its 2019 average.

Key Quotes

“Despite the end-of-year weakness, the indicator shows better activity figures for the fourth quarter last year than the third.”

“In manufacturing, the indicator remained strong, showing higher levels of activity than in November. The manufacturing production figures for November, which were published at the same time, showed a 0.1% contraction after two months of positive growth. Consumer goods production was the main factor behind this, dropping by 9.2% month-on-month while investment goods production was still growing by 3.1%. Industrial production grew by a mere 0.3% thanks to better energy and construction growth figures.”