On Friday, the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Europe said that central banks should "kill the beast" of inflation, without being tempted to take a "pause" in raising interest
rates
.
The beast in question is indeed resisting.
In April, in France, inflation accelerated to 5.9% year on year, after slowing to 5.7% in March.
Despite this jump driven by energy and services, economists are still counting on a decline in price increases from the summer.
In Germany, the decline is already well underway: for the same month of April, inflation reached 7.2% against nearly 9% at the peak in the fall.
The pressure exerted in this inflationary context by the central bank rate hikes weighs on the economy, without however disrupting activity.
Eurozone GDP thus grew modestly by 0.1% in the first quarter after stagnating at the end of 2022. The performances appear disparate: it increased by 1.6% in Portugal and by 0.5% in Spain and Italy, but fell by 2.7% in Ireland and 0.3% in Austria.
France, for its part, is limiting the damage, despite the repeated strikes against the pension reform, with quarterly growth of 0.2% which, however, cannot hide the accumulation of dark clouds.
Consumption, the traditional engine of growth in France, is particularly gloomy under the weight of inflation.
In three months, she has not progressed.
"
Companies continue to invest and create jobs, which brings us closer to our goal of full employment
", welcomed the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire.
Thanks to solid exports from the aeronautical and automotive sectors, foreign trade thus contributed positively, by 0.6 points to GDP growth this quarter.
The government is still counting on business growth of 1% this year.
The forecast seems optimistic.
The consensus of economists is now targeting 0.5%.
