PARIS, Jan 5: French household confidence improved slightly in December to an indexed minus-30 points, from minus-33 in November, a composite indicator by the national statistics institute INSEE showed on Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted monthly indicator represents the balance in percentage points between consumers having experienced, or expecting, a rise in their living standard and those seeing a decline.

The improvement in consumer sentiment was slightly ahead of expectations, according to analysts polled by AFX News, the AFP financial news service, who had forecast a consensus increase to minus-31 for December.

The November confidence reading of minus-33 was the lowest since late 2003, and followed a minus-30 points in October.

Commenting on the improvement in December, an analyst at economics consultancy Xerfi, Nicolas Bouzou, said: “It’s not surprising since confidence had fallen to an extremely low level, below which it was difficult to fall more.”

An analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, Emmanuel Ferry, said that consumers would remain downbeat in 2006 because of a lacklustre job market and more prudent government spending.

“Households continue to be excessively pessimistic,” he said.

For December, INSEE said that all the component indices of the survey had climbed from the previous month.—AFP