By Ed Frankl
France’s inflation rate fell more than expected in June, reaching its lowest level since March 2022, as fuel and food prices continued to ease.
France’s consumer price index rose by 4.5% on year in June, measured by national standards, compared with May’s 5.3% increase, according to preliminary data from the country’s statistics office Insee released Friday.
The reading was less than the 4.7% expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
The fall was driven by energy prices, which fell 3% in June on year, compared with rising 2.0% on year in May, as fuel prices came down further.
Food prices also slowed down, rising 13.6% on year, compared with 14.3% in May.
Services inflation, of interest to European Central Bank policymakers looking for clues to underlying inflation, ticked down only marginally to 2.9%, from 3.0% in the prior month.
French inflation fell to 5.3% on year by European Union harmonized standards, down from 6.0% in May, but still well above the ECB’s 2% target.
France’s inflation reading has been slower to come down than some other nations, based on base effects after President Emmanuel Macron’s government in 2022 put in place policies to limit increases in energy bills, which has propped up the rate this year.
But while French inflation remains substantially higher than the 1.6% recorded in neighbors Spain and Belgium, it is lower than the 6.8% reported in Germany, and 6.7% in Italy, according to EU-harmonized data.
Write to Ed Frankl at [email protected]
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