FX.co ★ France Household Spending Tops Forecasts in May

Household consumption of goods in France rose by 0.5% month-on-month in May 2026, beating market expectations of a 0.2% increase and rebounding from a 0.5% decline in April. Energy spending recovered strongly (2.3% vs -3.2% in April), supported by a sharp rebound in gas and electricity use after an unusually warm April.

By contrast, expenditure on manufactured goods slowed sharply, easing to 0.1% from 0.4% in April, while food consumption was unchanged after a 0.2% decline in the previous month. Within manufactured goods, spending on durables rebounded (0.7% vs -0.4%), whereas purchases of textiles and clothing partially reversed their earlier gains (-0.3% vs 1.5%), as did expenditure on other manufactured goods (-0.6% vs 1.2%).

On a yearly basis, total household consumption was flat in May, after a downwardly revised 0.2% contraction in April.