French Consumer Confidence Sinks to 13-Year Low Amid Protests, Bond Selloff — 2nd Update

By Ed Frankl

Consumer confidence in France tumbled to its lowest level since June 2013, after nationwide protests and a selloff of government bonds raised questions on the feasibility of the country's fiscal outlook.

The monthly sentiment indicator, based on a survey of around 2,000 households, fell to 80 in October from 85 in September, well below its long-term average of 100, France's statistics body Insee said Tuesday.

Economists polled last week by The Wall Street Journal expected the level to hold up at 85. The last time the gauge closed in on a similar low was in 2022 and 2023, during the inflation surge that followed Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The French 10-year bond yield reached its highest level since 2002 this month, amid investor concern over the country's debt load and political paralysis. Respondents were surveyed between Sept. 25 and Oct. 19, encompassing some of the protests and rioting that engulfed the eurozone's second-largest economy this month.

French lawmakers have struggled to agree on a budget in a fractured parliament, in the final few months of President Emmanuel Macron's term ahead of elections next year. The International Monetary Fund said this month it expects France to have a budget deficit of 5.4% this year, and the economy to grow just 0.4%.

Households' assessment of their finances worsened significantly this month, alongside a slide in views of their standard of living, according to the survey. A measure of consumers' assessment of living standards reached its lowest level since the survey began in 1972, Insee said.

"The decline is consistent with political uncertainty and fears of disruption weighing on households," Pantheon Macroeconomics economist Claus Vistesen said in a note to clients.

However, given the protests occurred on the weekend at the end of the collection period, November's confidence gauge will offer a clearer test of the direct impact of the recent violence, Vistesen said.

Protests in France were started last month by students over conditions in schools and universities, but have grown into a demonstration against the high cost of living, bringing hundreds of thousands onto the streets in recent weekends. Pockets of rioting, looting and skirmishes with police have broken out in major cities including Paris.

Consumer spending had helped prop up the French economy in the early part of the year, helping the country avoid a recession in the second quarter after gross domestic product contracted in the first.

But October's consumer survey also showed price pressures creeping up this month, ahead of a European Central Bank meeting this week. The ECB has raised its key interest rate twice this year after the jump in energy prices due to the war in the Middle East, though it is expected to stand pat on Thursday.

Households turned gloomier just as business activity returned to contraction, according to an October survey of purchasing managers among manufacturing and services firms published last week.

The confidence survey comes ahead of a flurry of economic data released this week, including French inflation and likely weak economic growth.

Write to Ed Frankl at edward.frankl@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 27, 2026 06:19 ET (10:19 GMT)