French national statistics office Insee released Friday encouraging monthly economic data showing rise in consumer confidence and in industrial production, zero inflation and further cuts into unemployment.

A composite indictor of consumer confidence rose to minus 25 in July from minus 28 in June on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The indicator on consumers' past personal financial situation was minus 17 in July, compared with minus 19 in June, while past French standard of living was minus 55 in July compared with minus 60 in June.

Industrial production data for May show an unexpectedly big rise of 2.0 percent on a 12-month comparison, the biggest rise since 2000.

Industrial confidence recovered in July: economists had expected it to be flat. And household confidence rose. Household consumption surged by 1.17 percent in June. Economists had expected an increase of 0.4 percent.

Inflation in June was zero on a monthly basis, giving 12-month inflation of 1.9 percent.

The trade balance is heavily in deficit, but data for May showed that the deficit had been reduced by about 200 million euros from the April figure to 1.8 billion euros.

Unemployment continued to fall to a rate of 9.0 percent in June, a fall of 0.1 percentage points in the month and the lowest figure since April 2002, with 2.186 million job seekers. In 12 months, the rate has fallen by one percent.

Source: Xinhua