French Inflation Eases Unexpectedly; PPI Rises At Faster Rate

(RTTNews) - France's consumer price inflation eased unexpectedly to a 4-month low in September, while producer prices continued to increase sharply in August, flash data from the statistical office Insee showed on Friday.

Consumer price inflation slowed to 5.6 percent in September from 5.9 percent in August. Meanwhile, economists had forecast inflation to remain stable at 5.9 percent.

The easing trend in September was mainly due to the slowdown in energy prices, and to a lesser extent, by service costs.

Energy prices alone grew 17.8 percent annually in September, but well below the 22.7 percent surge in August.

EU harmonized inflation dropped to 6.2 percent in September from 6.6 percent in August. In contrast, it was expected to rise slightly to 6.7 percent.

On a monthly basis, the harmonized index of consumer prices, or HICP, declined 0.5 percent in September, reversing a 0.5 percent fall seen a month ago. The expected fall was only 0.1 percent.

Similarly, the consumer price index decreased 0.5 percent in September versus a 0.5 percent gain in the prior month, and an expected fall of 0.1 percent.

In a separate report, the statistical office revealed that industrial producer price inflation in the home market accelerated further to 29.5 percent in August from 27.6 percent in July.

Producer prices in the foreign market grew 23.2 percent annually in August and total producer prices climbed 27.7 percent.

Month-on-month, producer prices climbed 2.7 percent in August, after rising 1.9 in the preceding month.

Another report from the statistical office showed that household spending showed no variations in August, after a 0.9 percent increase in the previous month.

In August, a 1.2 percent rise in spending on manufactured goods was offset by a 1.0 percent decline in food purchases.