The consumption of households fell “markedly” in France in January, falling 4.6% compared to December under the effect of the shift in sales and the strengthening of curfew to fight against the epidemic of Covid-19, INSEE reported on Friday.
This decline is due to the sharp drop, by 12.9%, in the consumption of manufactured goods, with in particular a collapse of 27.8% in clothing-textiles, while the start of the winter sales was postponed from January 6 to 20 at the request of organizations of small traders anxious to preserve their margins longer after the administrative closures in November.
Energy consumption has increased
Durable goods also fell by nearly 10%, with a decline of nearly a quarter in spending related to housing equipment “which had been particularly dynamic in December due in particular to the postponement of Black Friday”, details the Insee.
Energy consumption increased by 6.3% due to the cold, fuel consumption increasing while remaining 8.3% below its level of January 2020, before the health crisis.
Increase in food expenditure
Food spending rose 1.7% from December, and 1.9% year on year.
INSEE has slightly revised downward the increase in consumer spending for the month of December, which had rebounded at the end of the second confinement and before the end of year celebrations.
These expenses were finally 3.6% higher, instead of 3.7%, than in December 2019, before the health crisis.
On February 4, INSEE reported that French household consumption had fallen by 7% in January compared to the pre-crisis, that is to say in the 4th quarter of 2019.
In December, the fall over this same period was only 4%, against 15% in November during the second confinement.
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