French Inflation Steady At 0.8%

(RTTNews) - France's consumer prices logged a steady growth in April as the fall in energy prices were partly offset by the rebound in food prices, preliminary data from the statistical office INSEE showed on Wednesday.

Consumer price inflation stood at 0.8 percent, the same rate as seen in March and in line with expectations.

Inflation, based on the harmonized index of consumer prices, softened less-than-expected to 0.8 percent from 0.9 percent in the previous month. Inflation was seen at 0.7 percent.

Food inflation advanced to 1.2 percent from 0.6 percent, while services inflation held steady at 2.3 percent.

Meanwhile, energy prices declined at a faster pace of 7.9 percent after a 6.6 percent fall and manufactured product prices dropped again by 0.2 percent.

On a monthly basis, consumer price inflation rose to 0.5 percent from 0.2 percent. Likewise, EU harmonized inflation picked up to 0.6 percent from 0.2 percent.

Producer prices declined for the sixteenth straight month in March. Producer prices fell 0.6 percent year-on-year following February's 1.2 percent decrease.

Month-on-month, the decline in producer prices worsened to 0.6 percent from 0.4 percent in February.