French Industry Remains Bullish

Confidence in France's manufacturing sector stabilized at its highest level in almost a decade in October, statistics agency Insee said Tuesday.

Business confidence in manufacturing was unchanged in October from September at 111 points, well above the long-term average of 100 for the indicator. That level of confidence was last seen in December 2007.

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 revised its 2017 economic growth forecast to 1.8% from 1.6% previously,

Tuesday's survey of confidence levels in industry showed business leaders are "very optimistic" about the outlook for output in the sector. Their assessment of recent output also improved.

Still, a wider measure of confidence--also covering services, construction, retail and wholesale--declined slightly to 109 points in October from 110 in September. Confidence in the services sector fell one point to 107.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 24, 2017 03:09 ET (07:09 GMT)