French household consumption: between structural trends and economic shocks

French household consumption has undergone profound changes since the 1980s. Before the turn of this century, the consumption of goods was the main driver, but since then it has been driven more by the consumption of services. The reasons for this include rising living standards, the digital transformations that have shaken up economies worldwide, and the “explosion” in the French housing stock. These changes have inevitably had an impact on the structure of the French consumer basket. The relative weight of consumer spending on energy, food, and accommodation and food services has fallen. Conversely, the share of spending on information and communication services and durable and capital goods has risen sharply. The pandemic and the energy crisis triggered by the outbreak of the war in Ukraine have had an unprecedented impact on French household consumption, while confirming the structural trends of recent decades. Symptomatic of recent crises, food consumption has contracted to an unprecedented extent in recent years, with the price shock leading to a downward volume adjustment. The same is true of energy expenditure (housing and motor vehicles), with significant volume declines over the last two years. It is estimated that, in 2023, spending on food was almost 6% lower in volume terms than in 2019, and that spending on energy was almost 5.5% lower.