French Factory Confidence Unexpectedly Eases In March
France's manufacturing confidence unexpectedly weakened for the first time in four months in March, as the assessment on order book levels and businesses' expectations on their production deteriorated, survey results from INSEE showed Thursday.
The confidence index for the manufacturing industry dropped to 101 from 103 in both January and February. Economists had expected the index to hold steady at 103.
The index is at its lowest level since June last year, when the score was 100.
Businesses were more pessimistic regarding past activity, but were more optimistic regarding finished-goods inventory. Their view on global and export order books weakened slightly.
The personal production expectations of the businesses eased in March, while the expectation on general production improved.
Overall business confidence in France eased slightly in March with the corresponding measure easing to 100 from 101 in February.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company - www.instaforex.com
