Consumer confidence in France registered a fall of one percentage point in April following nationwide protests against a youth-labor law and oil price hikes.

According to official figures released Friday by the French national statistic office Insee, a poll of 2,000 people showed the consumer confidence index fell to minus 27 from minus 26 in March and minus 24 in February.

The fall in consumer confidence may have resulted from the 37- percent surge in oil prices over the past year and companies' reluctance to employ more workers.

Meanwhile, a drop in the unemployment rate in March to 9.5 percent from 9.6 percent seemed to have caused no upward effect on the consumer confidence.

France's unemployment rate fell to 9.5 percent last month with 30,900 jobs created. Over the whole past year, 184,600 people went back to the labor market. The unemployment rate among those under 26-year-old reached to 22.1 percent with a fall of 1.7 percent.

Source: Xinhua