France: inflation accelerated to 1.6% in 2021, the highest since 2018
Inflation in France accelerated to 1.6% over the whole of 2021, on an annual average, unveiled Friday Insee, at the highest since 2018, under the effect of a surge in prices of energy and higher prices for manufactured goods.
Consumer prices, calculated in comparison with the previous year, increased by 0.5% in 2020, a year marked by the onset of the Covid-19 epidemic, by 1.1% in 2019, and by 1.8% in 2018, adds the National Institute of Statistics.
Calculated excluding volatile energy and food prices, so-called core inflation also accelerated, to + 1.1% following + 0.6% a year earlier.
In detail, energy prices, which had plunged 6.1% in 2020, this time climbed 10.5%, while petroleum products soared 13.5%, significantly contributing to the price progression.
This increase is explained by a surge in oil prices on world markets in favor of the economic recovery, which are now moving above 80 dollars, a level close to their levels before the pandemic, as well as to a strain on the gas market.
The prices of natural and city gas soared 24% in 2021, with a marked acceleration in the second half of the year, specifies INSEE.
The prices of manufactured goods, meanwhile, advanced 0.3%, amid an economic recovery and tensions in supply chains.
The National Institute of Statistics had confirmed a little earlier on Friday the increase in consumer prices of 2.8% in December in France over one year, a figure to serve as a basis for calculating the pay rate of the Livret A, whose level of revaluation is to be announced Friday by the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire.
The price increase in France is currently at its highest since 2008 in France. The government has taken measures to limit its effects for low-income households and in particular has imposed a limit on the increase in electricity prices to 4% in 2022 for all individuals.
