French outlook bright despite reform worries

French consumers are, rather unusually, very upbeat at the moment, with measures of consumer confidence at or close to multi-year highs. In particular, they are much less worried about being made unemployed.  We think that this is justified, even though the labour market recovery has been slow to get going. After all, the French economy is performing better than it has done in years and, in part due to the labour market reforms outlined by the French Government this week, companies should start to hire more workers. This will help to galvanise the labour market recovery, ultimately supporting growth in real incomes and spending.