French business sentiment index unchanged in March, consistent with stable economic growth

French business confidence is in line with stable growth in March. Today’s data brought the latest Bank of France business sentiment survey, providing the last set of top-tier French confidence indices for March. Last week’s INSEE and PMI indicators implied a slight rebound, but today’s survey suggested that French business condition continued to be widely stable at the end of the first quarter of 2019, noted Daiwa Capital Market Research in a report.

In particular, the headline manufacturing index was unchanged at 100 in March, with companies recording strong production in IT products and textiles, while output was reportedly little changed in the autos sector.

However, while orders continued on a downward trend, manufacturers continued to be positive about the outlook with a similar rate of production growth expected in April. The headline index for services moved sideways at 101 in March for the fourth straight month, with companies in the sector anticipating activity to accelerate in April after decelerating in March. With construction companies assessing activity to have stayed strong, the equivalent confidence index was unchanged at 106, matching the series high seen in October 2018.

“While the manufacturing and services indices were on average in Q1 slightly lower than the average in Q4, the Bank of France assessed today's survey to be consistent with GDP growth of 0.3 percent Q/Q in the first quarter, unchanged from the rates seen in H218 and in line with our own forecast”, stated Daiwa Capital Market Research.

At 18:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Euro was neutral at 24.441 while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was neutral at -16.5301 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex