French consumer price inflation eases in September

The U.S. consumer price index eased in the month of September. Sequentially, the consumer price index came in at -0.3 percent, following prior month’s 0.5 percent rebound in August. The downturn was mainly due to services prices and to a lesser extent, food prices. On the contrary, manufactured product prices gathered momentum and those of energy rose after a stability in the prior month.

On a year-on-year basis, consumer prices came in at 0.9 percent, easing from August’s 0.1 percent. The slight deceleration is due to slowdown in prices of food and energy, partially countered by an acceleration in services prices and a lesser fall in manufactured products prices.

Meanwhile, core inflation accelerated to 0.9 percent year-on-year in September from August’s 0.7 percent. The harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) eased to -0.4 percent after 0.5 percent seen in the prior month.

Food prices dropped sharply to 2.1 percent year-on-year from August’s 3.1 percent. Those of fresh products strongly slowed down to 2 percent, due to a marked deceleration in the prices of fresh vegetables and a downturn in those of fresh fruits. Stripping fresh products, food prices rose 2.1 percent.

Energy inflation eased to 0.2 percent in September from 0.8 percent. The prices of petroleum products shrank sharply to -2.6 percent year-on-year. The accentuated fall in gas prices added to the lower energy inflation.

On a year-on-year basis, services price inflation accelerated to 1.2 percent from August’s 1.1 percent. The prices of communication services rose year-on-year for the first time since July 2018. Furthermore, the prices of “other services” accelerated. On the contrary, those of transport services eased to 0.8 percent year-on-year after an acceleration in August, in the wake of those of airfares. Health services price fell 0.3 percent year-on-year. The housing-related services rose 0.8 percent year-on-year.

Manufactured product prices fell sharply in September by 0.7 percent. This lesser fall came from that in clothing and footwear prices. The prices in “other manufactured products” prices dropped 0.1 percent year-on-year, due to a recovery in the motor cars prices and an attenuated drop in household appliances prices.