French consumer spending on manufactured goods fell in February but analysts said the pullback was to be expected after a string of strong gains and posed no risk to the outlook for growth. Household spending, which has been the driving force behind economic growth in the eurozone's second biggest economy, declined 0.4 percent in February compared with the previous month, national statistics office INSEE said on Friday.
That marked a turnaround from January's revised 1.0 percent rise - originally reported as 1.2 percent - but came in slightly above the consensus forecast for a 0.5 percent monthly drop and still resulted in a year-on-year rise of 5.0 percent.
"It isn't worrying at all after four months of very strong rises. I wouldn't read anything sinister into this data - even French households need a respite," said Alexander Law, chief economist at Xerfi consulting. He said the trend was still for growth of 2 percent this year with household consumption remaining the mainstay of economic expansion.
A breakdown of the data showed a sharp monthly decline of 1.6 percent in spending on household equipment more than offset a monthly increase of 0.8 percent in automobiles purchases. Analysts said this reflected a slowdown in the housing market seen in recent months but they pointed out that the yearly increase remained strong. Spending on household equipment rose 20.4 percent compared with a year earlier.
"The pattern (of spending overall) is still consistent with a scenario of growth driven by domestic consumption in the first quarter," said Jean-Louis Mourier at Aurel Leven.