French December consumer confidence declined to -44 from -43 in November. The breakdown showed that consumers are more pessimistic again about their personal financial situation, as well as the future standards of living. Concerns about the future unemployment situation are rising, but despite this, the reading for the current purchasing opportunity improved slightly - to -36 from -38. This squares with comments from French Finance Minister Lagarde earlier, who said spending held up in December, after the Christmas sales went "rather well". Still Lagarde admitted that 2009 will be a year with "a difficult situation to manage" and the decline in overall consumer sentiment supports this.