France’s CPI inflation rate holds steady at 2.2% in May

Annual consumer price inflation in France has remained stable at 2.2% in May, a preliminary figure showed on Friday.

A consensus of analyst estimates had pointed to an acceleration to 2.4%.

It has been the lowest inflation rate since September 2021.

In May, prices increased at a faster rate for food (1.3% YoY compared to 1.2% YoY in April) and energy (5.8% YoY compared to 3.8% YoY in April).

Conversely, price increase slowed for services (2.7% YoY compared to 3% YoY in April) and tobacco (8.7% YoY compared to 9% YoY in April).

Prices remained little changed for manufactured products.

In monthly terms, consumer prices in the country registered no change in May, after a 0.5% rise in April. A sharp decrease in energy costs has offset a surge in food prices.

The Euro was 0.11% firmer on the day against the US Dollar, with the EUR/USD currency pair last trading at 1.0843 ahead of the release of the highly anticipated US PCE inflation figures for April.