France’s CPI inflation lowest since September 2021

Annual consumer inflation in France has eased more than expected, to 2.3% in March, from 3% in February, preliminary data by INSEE showed.

It has been the lowest CPI inflation rate since September 2021.

In March, food inflation slowed to 1.7% from 3.6% in the prior month.

There has also been a slowdown in cost of services (3% YoY versus 3.2% YoY in February), tobacco (10.7% YoY versus 18.7% YoY in February), energy (3.4% YoY versus 4.3% YoY in February) and manufactured products (0.1% YoY versus 0.4% YoY in February).

In month-over-month terms, consumer prices in France increased 0.2% in March, while slowing from a 0.9% gain in February, because of a small drop in energy prices.

Meanwhile, France’s European Union-harmonized 12-month CPI inflation decelerated to 2.4% in March from 3.2% in February.

The Euro was last 0.08% weaker against the US Dollar on Friday, with the EUR/USD currency pair trading at 1.0778.

The major Forex pair hovered just above a five-week low of 1.0768, which it registered earlier in the trading session.