FX.co ★ French Manufacturing Confidence Hits 1-Year High

The level of confidence amongst French manufacturers saw an improvement in March, reaching a peak not seen for a year. This sentiment boost was primarily due to heightened production expectations and more robust order books, according to the monthly data published by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).

The manufacturing sentiment index saw an uptick to 102.0 in March, up from a revised 101.0 in February. Economists had predicted a dip in confidence to 100. For the second consecutive month, the index has stayed above its long-term average benchmark of 100.0. The current score is the most significant one since March of the previous year when the index hit 103.

The March index was mainly buoyed by improved production expectations for the upcoming three months. The index associated with these expectations rose dramatically from 4.0 in February to 10 in March.

The overall order books index improved slightly, increasing to -14 from its earlier position at -17. Production expectations across the board were somewhat less negative in March, as indicated by the relevant index’s improvement to -7 from February’s -8.

The index that gauges sentiment regarding past production over the last three months climbed marginally to 1.0 from zero.

As for selling prices, the sub-index measuring the forecasted trend for the next three months slipped to -1 in March, down from zero in the previous month.

Boosting confidence across various sectors, the comprehensive business confidence index, which includes responses from business leaders across manufacturing, construction, retail trade, services, and wholesale trade, strengthened to 100 in March, up from 98 in the previous month.