French headline inflation remains stable sequentially in February, accelerates slightly year-on-year

French headline consumer price inflation data for the month of February was released today. On a sequential basis, the consumer price index was stable after a 0.4 percent downturn in December, showed INSEE. The recovery in energy prices was countered by a fall in fresh food prices and the lesser fall in manufactured product prices. Seasonally adjusted, consumer prices were stable over a month, after 0.2 percent rise in January.

On a year-on-year basis, consumer prices rose 1.3 percent in February, following a 1.2 percent in January. This slight rise in inflation was driven by the year-on-year acceleration in energy and food prices, partially countered by a deceleration in services prices and a higher fall in those of manufactured products.

The core inflation rate remained unchanged at 0.7 percent year-on-year, as in the three prior months. The HICP inflation rebounded to 0.1 percent sequentially, after a fall of 0.6 percent in January. On a year-on-year basis, the HICP inflation accelerated to 1.6 percent from January’s 1.4 percent.

Food prices saw marked acceleration on a year-on-year basis. Food prices rose 3.1 percent after rising 2.7 percent in the prior month. Meanwhile, energy inflation rose sharply in February after three straight months of fall, due to an acceleration in petroleum product prices. Energy prices were up 3.2 percent year-on-year. Contrariwise, gas prices decelerated in February and electricity prices dropped.

Services prices decelerated on a year-on-year basis. It slowed to 0.9 percent from 1 percent. Those of transport dropped by 0.5 percent year-on-year after -0.1 percent in January, in particular airfares. The fall in housing-related services prices softened.

Meanwhile, manufactured product prices dropped a little sharper in the month. On a year-on-year, the manufactured product prices came in at -0.5 percent after -0.4 percent seen in the prior month. The sharper fall was due to the 3 percent fall in prices in in health products.

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