Article: French consumer spending advances 1.5%

Household spending in France, Europe's third-largest economy, rose the most in five months in November on purchases of cars and home appliances, underpinning expectations for a recovery in consumer demand this quarter.

Purchases of manufactured goods increased 1.5 per cent from October, when they climbed a revised 0.6 per cent, Paris-based statistics office Insee said yesterday. Economists polled by Bloomberg expected a 0.1 per cent gain, the median of 23 forecasts showed.

The bigger-than-forecast increase may reflect former Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's initiative allowing workers to withdraw cash from employee-savings plans. A rebound in household demand, the biggest part of the ...

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