France’s business morale lowest since January

France’s business confidence has decreased to its lowest level since January in May, the latest data by INSEE showed.

The gauge of business morale came in at a reading of 99.2 in May, down from 100.0 in April.

The indicator remained below its long-term average and also below market consensus of 100.0.

In May, companies’ assessments became negative for past production (-2 down from 1 in April) and for expected trend in selling prices (-1 down from 3 in April).

Additionally, businesses’ pessimism increased for general production (-9 down from -7 in April).

Meanwhile, evaluations became less positive for expected change in workforce (3 down from 4 in April) and for personal production (1 down from 8 in April).

Conversely, the gauge for perceiving economic uncertainty improved to 28 in May from a level of 27 in April.

The Euro was last 0.36% firmer on the day against the US Dollar, with the EUR/USD currency pair trading at 1.0854.