PARIS: A growth in food costs drove the French consumer prices index (CPI) higher by 0.1 percent in October compared to the 0.4-percent decline a month earlier, official figures showed Thursday.
On a year-on-year basis, the country’s CPI, a key gauge of inflation, increased by 0.1 percent.
October’s rise in prices stemmed mainly from a 3.3-percent increase in fresh foodstuffs which pulled food costs up by 0.5 percent for the second consecutive month, the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) said in a monthly report.
Losing 0.6 percent, energy costs were down for the fifth successive month, “mainly due to a new decline in prices of petroleum products,” INSEE added.
Already suffering from poor competitiveness, manufactured goods were stable last month with prices of clothing rising slightly over the period.
Compared to September data, the core-inflation (ISJ), also inched up last month by 0.1 percent, as well as the harmonized consumer price index, (HCPI) which recorded a tepid increase at the end of October.
For the whole year of 2015, the French government set inflation rate at 0.9 percent.
