AGL 39.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-1.05%)
AIRLINK 131.22 Increased By ▲ 2.16 (1.67%)
BOP 6.81 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.89%)
CNERGY 4.71 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (4.9%)
DCL 8.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.29%)
DFML 41.47 Increased By ▲ 0.65 (1.59%)
DGKC 82.09 Increased By ▲ 1.13 (1.4%)
FCCL 33.10 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (1.01%)
FFBL 72.87 Decreased By ▼ -1.56 (-2.1%)
FFL 12.26 Increased By ▲ 0.52 (4.43%)
HUBC 110.74 Increased By ▲ 1.16 (1.06%)
HUMNL 14.51 Increased By ▲ 0.76 (5.53%)
KEL 5.19 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-2.26%)
KOSM 7.61 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.42%)
MLCF 38.90 Increased By ▲ 0.30 (0.78%)
NBP 64.01 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (0.79%)
OGDC 192.82 Decreased By ▼ -1.87 (-0.96%)
PAEL 25.68 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.12%)
PIBTL 7.34 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.68%)
PPL 154.07 Decreased By ▼ -1.38 (-0.89%)
PRL 25.83 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.16%)
PTC 17.81 Increased By ▲ 0.31 (1.77%)
SEARL 82.30 Increased By ▲ 3.65 (4.64%)
TELE 7.76 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-1.27%)
TOMCL 33.46 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-0.8%)
TPLP 8.49 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (1.07%)
TREET 16.62 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (2.15%)
TRG 57.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.82 (-1.41%)
UNITY 27.51 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.07%)
WTL 1.37 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-1.44%)
BR100 10,504 Increased By 59.3 (0.57%)
BR30 31,226 Increased By 36.9 (0.12%)
KSE100 98,080 Increased By 281.6 (0.29%)
KSE30 30,559 Increased By 78 (0.26%)

French company bosses were less confident about their prospects in December, data showed on Friday, adding to signs that the economic recovery is fragile. Business morale fell to 89, national statistics office INSEE said, undershooting expectations for 91. That followed an upwardly revised reading of 90 in November.
"It's a pretty disappointing survey. We'd just started the recovery and you see the level the sentiment indicator is at," said Olivier Gasnier, economist at Societe Generale. "We've never seen the recovery stopping at such low levels. That's what's so worrying. It looks like there's no real support to demand once you take away direct subsidies."
From January 1, the government will phase out a car scrappage subsidy that has helped manufacturing and consumption this year. The car industry, which accounts for about 10 percent of manufacturing in France and about 2 percent of gross domestic product, is worried that sales will tumble once direct support is withdrawn.
Bosses surveyed by INSEE said the outlook for orders had worsened. Foreign order books fell to -58 from -51 in November. The personal outlook for production sank to -7 from -4. "Industrial companies are expecting a slight slowdown in activity in the next few months," the report said.
In a quarterly report on Thursday, INSEE said a weak economic recovery would take hold in the coming quarters driven by consumer spending but businesses would continue to struggle. "The central question is the lasting quality of the recovery," said Sandrine Duchene, head of INSEE's forecasting department at the release of the report.
"The message driven home in the current surveys is rather of a slowdown in activity than an acceleration." The Markit/CDAF flash composite managers' index (PMI) which combines data from the services and manufacturing sectors also slipped in December. Economists said the reports raised questions about the strength of the recovery in 2010.
"Growth in the fourth quarter will be held up by private consumption and car sales but we've got an outlook here which is not too encouraging for the start of next year," said Gasnier. INSEE is expecting the euro zone's second largest economy to grow 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter and in the first quarter of 2010, slowing to 0.3 percent in the second quarter.

Copyright Reuters, 2009

Comments

Comments are closed.