Faced with persistent inflation on supermarket shelves, the government is unveiling new measures. Invited to the 1 p.m. newspaper of France 2 this Thursday, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, announced that the actors of the large distribution and the agri-food industry reached an agreement Thursday morning to ” definitively break the spiral of prices”.
First, the trade negotiations which must determine the prices of all the products on the shelves will be held in the fall, and even “from September”, rather than from December to March as provided for by law. This measure has been requested for a long time by distributors, who wish to pass on the reductions in the price of raw materials to consumers as quickly as possible. It should make it possible to see “rate reductions from January 2024”. “We will go through a legislative text,” he added.
In addition, the prices of 5,000 references must “no longer move or move downwards” from today, explained the Minister of the Economy, adding that checks will be carried out by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control (DGCCRF). “It’s much better” than the 1,500 products affected so far, he said. Manufacturers and distributors are currently finalizing the precise list of these 5,000 products which should be known in the coming weeks.
Finally, distributors will have to pass on the shelves “compulsorily and immediately” the price reductions granted by manufacturers and not postpone them to increase their margins. Here too, the DGCCRF will carry out regular checks to ensure the proper application of this measure.
The minister also attacked certain foreign agri-food manufacturers by name, accused of not taking their share in the face of inflation. He thus cited the case of “Pepsico”, “Unilever” and “Nestlé”. Conversely, other industrialists were praised by Bruno Le Maire for having “played the game”. Thus the pasta specialist “Barilla” and the giant of edible oils “Avril”.
This speech comes as INSEE published, a few hours earlier, inflation figures up slightly in August, halting the ebb dynamics observed in recent months. According to this first estimate, the general rise in prices reached 4.8% during the month that is ending against 4.3% in July. Statisticians explain this phenomenon by a slight jump in energy prices in August and the end of the sales on July 31. Food inflation, which directly concerns large retailers and agri-food manufacturers, continues to slow for the fifth consecutive month (11.1% in August against 12.7% a month earlier).
