French Business Confidence Declines in December

Confidence in France's manufacturing sector fell in December, statistics agency Insee said Thursday.

Business confidence in manufacturing declined in December to 112 points from 113 points in November, in line with economists' expectations.

Despite the small decline, business confidence remains well above the long-term average of 100 for the indicator.

Strong confidence levels in France underpin an uptick in the eurozone's second-largest economy since the end of last year.

Earlier this month, Insee said the French economy would continue to grow at a relatively steady clip in the beginning of 2018.

After posting 1.9% growth in 2017, growing business optimism will push quarter-to-quarter growth to 0.5% in the beginning of 2018, and then 0.4% in the spring, Insee said.

-Write to Noemie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 21, 2017 03:11 ET (08:11 GMT)