French consumer morale improved more than expected in February, according to data published today.
Households turned more positive about the outlook for personal finances and spending, lifting the consumer sentiment index to minus 24, its highest since April 2005, from minus 27 in January, according to INSEE.
That compared with a consensus forecast of minus 26. This helped overshadow economists' disappointment at a rise which took the jobless rate to 9.6 per cent in January from 9.5 per cent in December, bucking their expectations for an unchanged reading.
Labour Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said it was too early to say if the increase in French unemployment to 9.6 per cent was a trend, a view with which economists' agreed.
"I would put more emphasis on the confidence report, basically because I think this rather unexpected rise in unemployment is not the start of anything," said David Naude, economist at Deutsche Bank in Paris.
INSEE also released separate data showing producer prices, a key indicator of pipeline inflation pressures, rose by more than expected in January, climbing 0.8 per cent from the previous month and 3.7 per cent from a year earlier.