This trend is explained by soaring energy prices and rising prices for manufactured goods.
Inflation in France accelerated to 1.6% over the whole of 2021, as an annual average, INSEE revealed on Friday, the highest since 2018, under the effect of a surge in prices of energy and a rise in the prices of manufactured goods. Consumer prices, calculated in comparison with the previous year, had increased by 0.5% in 2020, a year marked by the appearance of the Covid-19 epidemic, by 1.1% in 2019, and by 1.8% in 2018, adds the National Institute of Statistics.
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Calculated excluding volatile energy and food prices, so-called core inflation also accelerated, to +1.1% after +0.6% a year earlier. In detail, energy prices, which had plunged by 6.1% in 2020, this time climbed by 10.5%, while petroleum products soared by 13.5%, contributing significantly to the price progression.
Soaring oil prices on world markets
This increase is explained by a surge in oil prices on the world markets thanks to the economic recovery, which are now evolving above 80 dollars, a level close to their levels before the pandemic, as well as to tension in the gas market. The prices of natural and city gas soared by 24% in 2021, with a marked acceleration in the second half of the year, specifies INSEE. Prices for manufactured goods rose 0.3%, against a backdrop of economic recovery and tensions in supply chains.
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The National Institute of Statistics had confirmed a little earlier on Friday the increase in consumer prices of 2.8% in December in France over one year, a figure to be used as a basis for calculating the rate of remuneration of the Livret A, whose level of revaluation must be announced on Friday by the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire. The rise in prices in France is currently at its highest since 2008 in France. The government has taken measures to limit its effects for low-income households and has in particular imposed a limit on the increase in electricity prices to 4% in 2022 for all individuals.