Abstract
The INSEE released one of the most concerning figures about the French economic environment: the opinion of the households has never been so low since 1987. In fact, tightening credit conditions, higher oil and primary goods prices, and the American financial crisis are undermining the mood of consumers. Despite this, concerning uncertainty, French growth is still a reality, thanks to the exports that still exist and to the increasing capacity utilization of firms. But, the French economy also depends on external factors as the consequences of the supreme crisis, the worrying health of the US demand. Those two aspects of the French economy make economic forecasts vary from one institution to another and from banks to public organizations. We can try to explain the way those figures have been computed and the benefit of those various calculation methods. We should also try to link those methods to the main economic theories and try to analyze the significance of the figures through those theories before drawing any conclusion about the future condition of the French economic health.
