In spite of the Christmas shopping season, consumer spending in France has found to have gone down. It is a clear sign of the fact that French people are not willing to spend more and have tightened their purse due to the economic uncertainties and slow job growth rate.

The French national statistics office INSEE has stated that spending on food and manufacturing goods have gone down by 0.7% in the month of December, when consumer spending is generally found to be high as people tend to spend more on purchasing gifts for others and also go for travel and vacation. Economists are worried over the fact that if consumer spending is down during the peak month of December, then what will happen in the general months when life is normal with no such spending trends.

When compared to the statistics shown by the agency, it can be observed that consumer spending has gone down by 3.1% over the last one year. But the lower level of spending has remained stable since the last three months of December 2011. Sales of items such as shoes and clothes went down by 0.9% and energy consumption went down by 2.7%. Fall in energy consumption can be attributed to mild weather. People have travelled less and it can be established from the fact that petrol consumption has gone down by 4.2% when compared to the month of November.

The survey showed that consumer confidence has gone down as people have gone through the phase of economic turmoil and is still gripped with the fear of another round of recession. Heads of governments are simply worried about this fact that how to turn around the economy. Revival of the economy will be a far distant dream if people stop spending and keep the money in their account and fears a lot to spend the money.