France Consumer Confidence

In France, the consumer confidence index is based on a survey of about 2 000 households. The questionnaire focuses on: past and future economic situation in France, past and future personal financial situation, unemployment, intention to make major purchases, current savings capacity and expected savings capacity. The indicator is calculated using factor analysis technique. The index is then calculated in a way to measure the current sentiment in relation to the historic index values of the period 1987-2011. A value over 110 indicates unusually high optimism and a value under 90 indicates unusually high pessimism. The value 100 indicates neutrality.