August business confidence 98 vs 98 expectedPrior 97The French business climate indicator picks up again in August, nudging back up to the highest since February. That being said, it's still keeping below the long-term average threshold of 100 - not having touched that since May 2024.The improvement comes amid better sentiment in most broader sectors with employment conditions also holding steady. The detailed breakdown is seen below:Manufacturing confidence 103 vs 101 priorServices confidence 100 vs 99 priorRetail trade confidence 99 vs 96 priorEmployment indicator 99 vs 99 priorThis is at least a good signal of how French business sentiment is holding up in Q3, but we'll have a better sense of how things actually might be playing out from the PMI data later in the day. This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.