In May, do what you please, the saying goes.

For many French households, the sources of pleasure have been limited all the same.

According to INSEE, their morale deteriorated during the month, settling at 86, fourteen points below the long-term average, based on the period between January 1987 and December 2021. The French also remain worried than in March and April about the evolution of their personal financial situation, and are not more optimistic for those around them.

“The share of households that consider that the standard of living in France will improve over the next twelve months is down” by five points compared to April, details INSEE.

This erosion of morale is however less pronounced than in March and April, and several components of the indicator are improving: the balance of households considering it appropriate to make a major purchase thus progresses by one point, "after a sharp drop in april ".

The share of households expecting prices to accelerate over the next twelve months plunged 15 points, almost as much as in April (-16 points), after a surge of 54 points in March.

Households are much more confident about the evolution of unemployment: “the corresponding balance has fallen by four points, thus remaining at a very low level”.

A level lower than at the worst of the Covid crisis

But the situation is not rosy in the minds of the French.

For Mathieu Plane, deputy director of the analysis and forecasting department of the OFCE, “we are in a more degraded situation than during the Covid shock”, and “below” “the strong deterioration during the crisis of” yellow vests "".

According to data released by INSEE on Wednesday, the indicator measuring household morale fell to 88 points in December 2018 and 89 points in November 2020, the low points of these two crises.

In addition, the months of May elections are traditionally periods during which "household morale tends to rise, on the idea of ​​new prospects, with a new program", notes the analyst.

But, in 2022, "we are in an extremely uncertain climate", and "there is little chance that things will improve much" in the short term, according to him.

To support purchasing power, “the State has done quite a lot with the “whatever it costs”, then the tariff shield, which is a kind of energy “whatever it costs”.

But how long can it last?

asks Mathieu Plane again.

At the same time, "we can see that companies are not necessarily willing to increase salaries a lot," he says.

“It is certainly the households that are bearing the brunt.

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  • Company

  • Inflation

  • Happiness

  • Insee

  • Unemployment

  • Households