2023-06-11 06:30:07
The government has launched, in partnership with several brands, a device aimed at freezing prices to curb inflation. According to figures put forward by the government, the operation would have been a success. The UFC-Que Choisir association is not of the same opinion …
Anti-inflation quarter, UFC-Que Choisir and Bercy disagree-iStock-Bet_Noire
A resounding success for the government
Launched last March on the initiative of the government and in partnership with major retailers, the anti-inflation quarter aims to freeze the prices of several hundred everyday consumer products. Participating brands have thus agreed to reduce their margins over a quarter to curb inflation in supermarkets. According to the figures communicated on May 10 by the Minister Delegate for Trade, Olivia Grégoire, the operation seems to have borne fruit. The price of products in the anti-inflation basket would thus have fallen by 13% (DGCCRF figures) over the quarter. The Minister did not, however, specify whether this implied a real reduction in each of the products contained in the basket or the price of a basket exclusively of these products had decreased by 13%.
A bilan I answered
A few days following the announcement of Olivia Grégoire, Grégory Caret, director of the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir, intervened in the media to challenge the success of the operation. As part of a study, UFC-Que Choisir analyzed the prices of a sample of products included in the inflation baskets of the five participating brands, between March 23 and May 10. At Intermarché, where the association examined 64 products out of the 500 contained in the basket for this brand, the UFC notes an average increase of 1.5%. The price increase is 1.4% on average at Casino (out of 116 products) and 1% for U stores (57 out of 150 products). The UFC also notes price stability at Carrefour, out of 70 products analyzed, and a drop of 0.3% at Auchan (96 out of 150 products included in the basket). According to Bruno Le Maire, who spoke immediately on BFMTV / RMC, “the UFC study is dishonest. They compared the products from March 23 to May 10 when the device had already been put in place. We must examine the price of products before the introduction of this program (March 15) and following. Grégory Caret subsequently told BFMTV that the “study was[tait] objective”, since there was “no price collapse between 1 and 23 March”. On the side of the signs, Intermarché reacted by means of a press release, specifying that 75% of the products included in its selection of 500 anti-inflation products had seen “their prices drop by around 8%” and that “for the last quarter, the prices [étaient] either stable or increasing slightly. Mixed results or clear success: the government announced at the beginning of June that the anti-inflation quarter would be extended until the end of the year.
1686465701
#Antiinflation #quarter #UFCQue #Choisir #Bercy #disagree
