French Consumer Spending Declines in August, Missing Expectations

French consumer spending was weaker than expected over the summer, statistics showed Friday, indicating that the eurozone's second-largest economy may be losing the momentum it built in the first half of the year.

Consumer spending in the eurozone's second-largest economy fell 0.3% on month, national statistic agency Insee said. That was below the 0.1% expansion expected by economist polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Insee also revised July's consumer spending figure down slightly to a 0.6% on-month expansion, from 0.7% previously.

In August, French consumers spent less on food than in July, while growth in spending on clothes and home furnishings slowed sharply, Insee's figures showed.

Write to William Horobin at william.horobin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 29, 2017 03:12 ET (07:12 GMT)