Inflation stalled in May, falling to 5.1% year on year, due to the slowdown in energy prices such as food prices, INSEE said on Thursday, confirming its first forecast. Consumer price inflation reached 5.9% year on year in April. Energy prices slowed in May (2% after 6.8% in April) attributable to the fall in the price of petroleum products such as diesel, detailed the National Institute of Statistics. The rise in gas prices is a little less sharp (21.6% after 22.9%) while those of electricity showed no respite (11.3% after 11.2%).
Having become the leading driver of inflation ahead of energy, food prices rose by 14.3% over one year in May, slightly less than in April (15%). “Excluding fresh products, food prices are slowing for the first time since September 2021” (14.9% after 15.8%), underlined INSEE, but “the prices of fresh products are increasing at a comparable rate to that of April” (10.7% after 10.6%). In detail, while the rise is easing for the prices of bread, cereals, meat, milk, cheese, eggs, oils, fruit or fresh fish, it is accelerating for sugar , jam, honey, chocolate, confectionery or fresh vegetables.
Inflation is also lower over one year for manufactured goods (4.1% after 4.6%) and services (3% after 3.2%). Core inflation, which excludes the most volatile elements such as energy, and thus makes it possible to identify a basic trend in price changes, rose to 5.8% over one year in May, after 6.3% in April.
