The morale of households in France remains very degraded in February, consumers worrying about their financial situation and being more likely to want to save, according to the results of the monthly survey published Friday by INSEE.
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The synthetic indicator which reflects household confidence lost one point to 82 points, well below its long-term average which is 100, specifies the National Institute of Statistics, which revised its indicator upwards published in January.
This upward revision of three points of household confidence in January is the result
of "an anomaly in the use of the survey, which led to the wrongly resuming in January 2023, the gross balances of opinion for December 2022
". , explains INSEE in its press release.
In February, “
households' assessment of their past and future financial situation remains significantly degraded
,” notes the institute.
But their opinion of their ability to save, although it has fallen slightly, remains above its long-term average.
The proportion of households which considers that it is appropriate to save has increased sharply in this survey carried out among 2,000 households from January 27 to February 15, despite inflation but while the Livret A account has experienced a record success in January, thanks to a rate of pay raised to 3% at the start of February.
Households have a very negative opinion on the past and future evolution of the standard of living in France, and few consider that it is appropriate to make major purchases, which is a bad signal for consumption and French growth, of which it is the main component.
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Finally, the proportion of households who believe that prices have increased over the past 12 months has reached its highest level since 1977, while the proportion of those who believe that prices will continue to accelerate over the next 12 months is increasing slightly and is "
well above its long-term average
".
