The wallet begins to burn your fingers. L’inflation reached 5.7% over one year in France in March. It is driven by soaring food prices, its main driver, according to a final estimate revised slightly higher on Friday by INSEE. The National Institute of Statistics had previously estimated inflation at 5.6% year on year last month.
While this increase in overall consumer prices is marking time compared to February, when it reached 6.3%, thanks to the slowdown in energy prices, food is heavy in the balance. Year on year, prices in this sector continued to accelerate, climbing 15.9% in March (following 14.8% in February). Both fresh products, such as fruit and vegetables, and non-fresh products such as bread, cereals, meat, cheese, chocolate or beverages are affected by this trend.
A return below 5% in June?
Driven by clothing and footwear, the prices of manufactured products (4.8%) also recorded a slight increase in March. Conversely, the rise in energy prices slowed sharply (4.9% in March following 14.1% in February) due to a sharp decline in petroleum products and a more modest deceleration in gas , which offset a acceleration in electricity prices. Services prices also slowed slightly in March (2.9% following 3% in February).
Core inflation, which excludes the most volatile elements such as energy and certain food products, and thus makes it possible to identify an underlying trend in price movements, rose to 6.2% over a year in March, following 6.1% in February. Since the take-off in consumer prices, under the effect of the disruptions in post-Covid supply chains and then the war in Ukraine, the inflation rate has returned to levels not seen since the 1980s. It should decline gradually to 5% in Junepredicted INSEE in early February.
