The Minister of the Economy sees an improvement, or even the end of the cost of living crisis. Inflation slowed significantly in France in October, to 4% over one year after 4.9% in September, according to provisional data communicated Tuesday by INSEE. “We are emerging from the inflationary crisis,” Bruno Le Maire immediately welcomed.
This drop in inflation is due, according to the Institute of Statistics, to the slowdown over one year in the prices of energy, food and, to a lesser extent, manufactured products. Food prices would indeed have increased by 7.7% year-on-year in October compared to 9.7% in September, and among them, the prices of fresh products increased by 0.8% compared to 4.5% and others. food prices up 9% compared to 10.6%.
Those of energy increased by 5.2% over one year against 11.9% in September, still over one year and those of manufactured products up by 2.3% after 2.8%. Prices of services seem to have accelerated slightly (3.2% versus 2.9%), on the other hand.
Slowdown over one month
Over one month, consumer prices would increase by 0.1% in October, after -0.5% in September, according to INSEE. This rebound would be due to the prices of services and in particular those of transport. The prices of manufactured products also increased over a month, “but less markedly than the previous month”.
Energy prices and food prices would fall. The drop over one year in the harmonized consumer price index, allowing European comparisons, would also be very marked, at +4.5% in October after +5.7% in September. Over one month, it would increase by 0.2% however, after -0.6% the previous month.
GDP growth up slightly
“There cannot be solid growth if we do not get rid of inflation definitively: we are emerging from the inflationary crisis, it is a success for the government’s economic policy which has saved French households , alone among all European countries, double-digit inflation rates for several months,” said the Minister of the Economy.
INSEE also announced growth in GDP (gross domestic product) up 0.1% in France in the third quarter, in line with forecasts, also revising slightly upwards the second to +0.6%. “In a degraded environment, the French economy is holding up,” responded Bruno Le Maire, stressing that this resilience was part of an environment of “high” interest rates in order to curb inflation. For the whole of 2023, INSEE anticipates growth of 0.9%, identical to the Banque de France’s forecast and a little below that of the government (+1%).