French consumer spending rebounds more than expected in April

PARIS: French consumer spending recovered more ground than expected in April as spending on energy rebounded, official data showed on Wednesday.

The INSEE official statistics agency said that consumer spending rose 0.8% in April, following a decline of 0.3% the previous month, which was revised down from -0.1% previously.

Economists polled by Reuters had on average expected an increase of 0.4% with estimates ranging from a flat reading to  1.0% growth.

Spending on manufactured goods rose a more modest 0.2% while spending on energy rose 4.0% as temperature returned to seasonally norms after particularly warm weather the previous two months depressed spending on heating.