Are the price increases observed on the shelves all justified?
The boss of the Leclerc stores is beginning to doubt it.
Invited on BFMTV, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, president of the executive committee of the stores of the same name, believes that "half of the increases [de prix] requested are not transparent, but are suspect".
Inflation: for Michel-Édouard Leclerc (@Leclerc_MEL), "Ukraine has a good back" pic.twitter.com/CvHEAHbTgR
– BFMTV (@BFMTV) June 30, 2022
“I would like the deputies (…) to open a commission of inquiry into the origins of inflation, into what is happening on the price front, from transport to consumers”.
"It would help us a lot to have this obligation of transparency, including before the public authorities", he continues, adding that this "concerns especially large companies and international markets".
Read also“Excessively high” inflation is likely to last, warns Christine Lagarde
The war in Ukraine reinforced the headwinds that existed before the start of the conflict, but which should have dissipated during the year.
This resulted in particular in price increases on raw materials which, beyond energy, spread to the prices of food and certain industrial products and services.
An argument that is not enough, believes Michel-Edouard Leclerc for whom "Ukraine has a good back".
A “liar game of poker”
"When you have manufacturers of cocoa-based products who invoke Ukraine for a 15% increase in tariffs on confectionery, on chocolate bars - I'm talking about Nestlé, I'm talking about Mars - don't mess around !
We are on the other continent for chocolate and cocoa!
“, insists the representative of the Leclerc group.
Another increase which, according to him, deserves more transparency, is that which affects sunflower oil, which is becoming scarce on supermarket shelves.
“Big sunflower oil brands have boasted of having a Franco-French oil.
Yet now, we are told
We will deliver to you but the price of acquiring
this oil must be increased by 34%.
And under these conditions, we will dry out your competitors and we will give you 130% of your demand, ”he explains.
Faced with what looks like a "liar's poker game", the boss of the Leclerc group believes that "the State and parliamentarians must ask everyone to come and justify this share of increase".
VIDEO.
“I am desperate”: consumers worried about rising prices
The rise in consumer prices in France accelerated further in June to reach 5.8% over one year, against 5.2% in May, according to a first provisional estimate published by INSEE.
Inflation is driven by the rise in energy and food prices, which increased by 33.1% and 5.7% respectively compared to June 2021, specifies the National Institute of Statistics.