The French industrial sentiment indicator stood at 103 in January 2019, unchanged from December and matching market expectations. It is the weakest reading since November 2016, as manufacturers remained pessimistic about the general production prospects for the sector with the corresponding index virtually stable at the lowest level since January 2015 (-11 from -10 in December) and below its long-term average. Meantime, the balance on personal production expectations has slightly declined (9 from 11) while that on past activity has picked up (9 from 5) returning above its long term average. The assessment on overall order books has slightly improved (-12 from -13), despite the dip in export order books (-11 from -9) and the balance of opinion on expected workforce size has fallen back (1 from 4). Business Confidence in France averaged 100.03 Index Points from 1976 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 124 Index Points in June of 2000 and a record low of 66 Index Points in March of 2009.
Business Confidence in France is expected to be 101.00 Index Points by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Business Confidence in France to stand at 100.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the France Business Confidence is projected to trend around 107.00 Index Points in 2020, according to our econometric models.