French food price increase should start to ease by September, said Olivia Gregoire, the country’s minister for small and medium enterprises, trade and tourism, echoing the outlook of the head of France’s central bank.
(Bloomberg) — French food price increase should start to ease by September, said Olivia Gregoire, the country’s minister for small and medium enterprises, trade and tourism, echoing the outlook of the head of France’s central bank.
“By the end of the summer season, we’ll have a visible decrease in prices on shelves,” Gregoire said of food costs in an interview Sunday with France Inter radio.
Earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron said food inflation in France would remain “difficult” for consumers until the autumn.
Soaring food prices have exacerbated France’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation — one in which the government urged stores to take a hit on margins to keep groceries affordable.
Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau told RTL last week that the nation’s inflation has probably peaked, and that food price increases should start to slow in the second half of the year.
Bloomberg’s custom food index for France, which calculates the cost of preparing traditional coq au vin, stayed high in March even as headline inflation slowed considerably.
Read more: France Warns Big Food Companies of Crackdown on Bloated Margins
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