The morale of Europeans “continues to slowly recover in 2025, for the second consecutive year”, except in France where political and economic uncertainty weighs on already not very optimistic consumers, according to The Cetelem Observatory Posted this Tuesday, February 11 by the French bank BNP Paribas.
There is a “historic tendency of French to be less optimistic than the European average”, recalls the observatory, which surveyed online 10,792 people in 10 countries, selected according to the quota method, from November 4 to 14, 2024. But this time he observed a “net break” in France as to the perception of the situation in the country. While this perception is slightly more positive on average in other European countries, it is much less in France than a year earlier.
This can “be explained by the uncertain political context in which the country sailed last year,” said the observatory in a statement, which carries out this study each year.
An increase in the savings rate in France
The ten countries surveyed are France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the United Kingdom and Sweden.
French pessimism relates to the situation of the country rather than on personal situations. “The French consider that their situation has not deteriorated in relation to the previous year, they consider, on the other hand, that the situation in the country is less good,” Flavien Neuvy, economist and director of the observatory, told AFP Cetelem. In general, despite a succession of “very powerful shocks” -“COVVI -19, return of war in Europe, inflationary crisis as we have not known for 40 years” -, consumption resists and continues to Being an essential engine of the European economy, observes Flavien Neuvy.
Caution in purchases remains, however, with a willingness to savings that are always very strong since the COVID-19 epidemic and the inflationary crisis. “You could think that after high inflation, French consumers were going to draw on their savings to maintain their consumption level, but they rather continued to increase their savings rate in 2024,” said Flavien Neuvy. In this context, “having fun”, by travel or getaways in particular and “ensure its comfort” are “the two main motivations for purchasing Europeans”, says the observatory.