French business confidence fell in February to the lowest in 13 months month and spending on manufactured goods slumped last month as accelerating inflation and slowing growth gripped the European economy.
Insee, the Paris-based national statistics office, said today its index of sentiment was 107, the lowest since January 2007 and down from last month's revised 108. Spending dropped by 1.2 percent, the most since September 2006, Insee said in a separate report. Both were worse than economists expected.
