Despite the ongoing pension reform strikes, French manufacturers' confidence weakened only slightly in March to mark the first fall in four months as their view about past and future production deteriorated, survey data from the statistical office Insee revealed Tuesday.
The manufacturing confidence index dropped to 104 in March from 105 in the previous month. The reading was forecast to fall to 103 from February's originally estimated value of 104. The score remained above the long-run average of 100.
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Business News
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.