Inflation slowed sharply in France May to 5.1% year-on-year, after reaching 5.9% in April and more than 6% at the beginning of the year, according to a first estimate published Wednesday by INSEE. What to rejoice Bruno Le Marie who welcomes this Wednesday morning on France Inter of this result, obtained "in a difficult economic environment", while "Germany has entered into recession" and the war in Ukraine rages.
"This decline in inflation would be due to the year-on-year slowdown in energy prices (...) manufactured products and services", but also food, up 14.1% year-on-year in May after growing 15% in April, says the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).
.@BrunoLeMaire: "Inflation slows sharply for the first time in several months"#le7930inter pic.twitter.com/VD6wTtTSYJ
— France Inter (@franceinter) May 31, 2023
"Inflation is slowing sharply, for the first time in several months," confirms Bruno Le Maire. "A certain number of prices will begin to fall," says the Minister of the Economy who says that "distributors have kept their commitments on the anti-inflation basket" and that the "industrialists who have committed to my office" must now keep theirs.
The threat of the "fiscal instrument"
And if the big industrialists do not maintain them, Bruno Le Maire once again brandishes the threat: "I will use the fiscal instrument to recover the margins and return these margins to consumers!"
The increase in the price of fresh products (+10.4% over one year) continued at almost the same pace as in April (+10.6%), but the cost of other food products rose less rapidly (14.8% compared to 15.8% in April).
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Disinflation is even sharper for energy, where prices rose 2% year-on-year in May, following a 6.8% jump in April and double-digit growth in recent months.
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The cost of manufactured goods (+4.1% year-on-year in May) and services (+3%) also decelerated, but less rapidly. Tobacco, whose cost jumped 9.8% year-on-year in May, is the only exception to the disinflation movement and its price accelerates for the third consecutive month, notes INSEE.
As a reference indicator for comparisons between European countries, the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) rose by 6% year-on-year in May, almost one percentage point lower than in April (+6.9%). INSEE is due to publish a second estimate of inflation in May in mid-June.