The French government plans to create an "anti-inflation" shopping basket to guarantee basic necessities at low cost and alleviate the impact of rising prices on consumers.
The Executive has insisted that the measure, similar to the one proposed by Vice President Yolanda Díaz in September last year, is still in the negotiation phase, but the idea is that it contain around twenty items and that supermarket chains join in voluntary way.
The announcement comes at a time of tension with distributors, who take a dim view of a bill that seeks to regulate annual trade negotiations between suppliers and chains.
"The global idea is that everyone contributes to the fight against inflation," Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on
BFMTV
on Monday.
"The State cannot pay for everything and you have to share the burden," he insisted.
The minister thus confirmed the information revealed on Sunday by the newspaper
Le Parisien
: the Government wants to suggest a basic basket with about 20 essential products at low prices, inspired by the one that Greece implemented in December.
It is not the first time that France has tried a basket of this type.
In 2011, the then Secretary of State for Consumption, Frédéric Lefebvre, invented the so-called
panier des essentiels
(basket of essentials, in French), which offered a variety of products for a price of about 20 euros.
The "anti-inflation" basket would include hygiene items for babies and adults, but also dairy, fresh products and pasta, according to the cabinet of the Minister for SMEs, Commerce and Tourism, Olivia Grégoire, who proposed the idea.
Her team has been working since November to find solutions to the impact of price increases on the pocket of the French.
The proposal is that distributors choose the products themselves and commit to selling them "almost at cost price", that is, without a profit margin, starting in March, according to the Ministry.
France is one of the eurozone countries with the lowest inflation rate (5.9% in December compared to the same period of the previous year), but as in other States, food prices have not stopped growing.
In fact, according to Eurostat data published this Wednesday, food has surpassed energy as the main culprit for inflation in the euro zone.
In France, according to the country's statistical agency (INSEE, for its acronym in French), these increased by 12% in December compared to last year.
The Government of Emmanuel Macron had initially announced the distribution of a food check to the most vulnerable households, but the measure was at a standstill.
The French Executive has stressed that it does not want to impose it through a law, but rather expects distributors to voluntarily give up a small part of their margins, since the measure would only affect a minimal portion of the thousands of products they sell. supermarkets.
The large distributors assure that, for the moment, they have not received any formal proposal and that they cannot give their opinion on the matter.
The Federation of Commerce and Distribution, which brings together most of the chains such as Carrefour or E.Leclerc, has said that it "agrees to work" on the proposal, but has recalled that many of them have already implemented measures to fight against inflation.
This voluntary measure is far from the proposal made this week by United We Can in Spain.
The Minister of Social Affairs and leader of the purple party, Ione Belarra, asked this Monday to intervene in the food market and set maximum prices for certain basic products.
In Spain, the establishment of a shopping basket with reduced prices is an issue that has come and gone since the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, opened the debate in September last year.
Food prices in Spain have been growing at a rate of more than 15% for three months despite the drop in general inflation, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Tensions with distributors
The government's proposal is made known at a time of tension with supermarkets after a deputy from Macron's party presented a bill that seeks to regulate trade negotiations between chains and suppliers.
The text, debated in the National Assembly on Monday, seeks to "guarantee the supply of consumer products to the French" by reducing the power that distributors have during talks with suppliers about sales prices.
Currently, supermarkets buy their products at a fixed price each year during negotiations.
But if these fail, it is usually considered that the price agreed the previous year is maintained for several months, which penalizes manufacturers in a context of rising prices.
The distributors assure, however, that the norm would encourage inflation and they see it as inconsistent that the Government asks them to fight against it when they prepare "a law that favors it", according to what
Jacques Creyssel, the general delegate of the company, told
Agence France Presse
. Federation of Commerce and Distribution.
At the moment, the proposed text does not generate consensus in the ranks of the Government.
“The bill is good, but the balance has not yet been found.
In its current state, this [text] must be reviewed,” declared Economy Minister Le Maire.
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