The French industrial sentiment indicator edged down by one point to 104 in December 2018, matching October's near two-year low but slightly beating market expectations of 103. Manufacturers were significantly less optimistic about the general production prospects for the sector, with the corresponding index dropping to its lowest level since January 2015 (-10 vs 4 in November). In addition, the balance of industrialists' opinion on their past activity has fallen back (8 vs 13) and that on their personal production expectations has declined too (11 vs 14). Meanwhile, the assessment on overall and export order books was virtually unchanged the balance of opinion on expected workforce size has bounced back (3 vs -1). Business Confidence in France averaged 100.03 Index Points from 1976 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 124 Index Points in June of 2000 and a record low of 66 Index Points in March of 2009.
Business Confidence in France is expected to be 102.00 Index Points by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Business Confidence in France to stand at 104.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the France Business Confidence is projected to trend around 101.00 Index Points in 2020, according to our econometric models.