Posted Jan 13, 2023, 9:17 AMUpdated on Jan 13, 2023 at 2:29 PM
This is not a surprise for the majority of French people and companies. Although it has tended to moderate recently, inflation was at a high level in 2022. According to INSEE, the rise in consumer prices, calculated as an annual average, amounted to 5.2 % over the whole year (taking tobacco into account). Either still a little better than the 5.3% anticipated by the government.
This figure shows a strong acceleration compared to previous years. Still in this form of calculation, it was indeed 1.6% in 2021 and 0.5% a year earlier. This rise in average inflation is primarily due to the acceleration in energy prices which, despite fuel discounts and tariff shield measures, show an increase of 23.1% in 2022 after 10, 5% a year earlier.
Increases multiplied by 10 in food
But other sectors also have their share of responsibility: in food and manufactured goods, the pace of growth has thus been multiplied by 10. And the prices of many transport services are not left out. They have been multiplied by 5 in rail, by nearly 4 for travel by coach and by 6 in air.
In food, the increase reaches 6.8% in 2022 and weighs in particular on fresh products which alone show an increase of 7.7% with peaks in the case of vegetables (+9.8%) and fish (+14.4%). Excluding fresh products, the increase was also significant (+6.6% after +0.4%) and affected many everyday products: meat (+7.9%), bread and cereals (+7 .2%), milk, cheese and eggs (+8.0%), oils and fats (+17.0%) or even drinks (+5.4% for non-alcoholic ones and +2 .8% for the others).
The picture is a little wiser on the manufactured goods side with, however, notable increases on the furniture side (+7.2%), non-durable household goods which include many cleaning products (+6, 7%) or even vehicles, which show an overall increase of 5%, including 7.3% for new cars alone.
Inflation eased at the end of the year
It remains to be seen what the future holds for the portfolio of the French. The annual average inflation index does not allow us to say. On the other hand, a trend towards moderation in the rise in prices is taking shape in the light of the index published each month by INSEE. Also published this Friday morning for the month of December, it highlights a recent decline in inflation calculated on a sliding basis over the last 12 months.
It is thus up by 5.9% after reaching a peak of 6.2% in October and November. This is mainly due to the effect of the deceleration in energy prices and in particular oil prices. This compensates for a slight acceleration in food and manufactured goods.
But this movement could very well be thwarted by the many increases expected at the start of the year: such as the effect of the end of the rebate on fuel, the rise in the price of rail transport or even wage increases granted by many companies.
Not all households are equal in the face of inflation
Often criticized for publishing an index that does not reflect the daily reality of the French, INSEE has tried to measure the impact of soaring inflation on different categories of households.
Thus, explain the public statisticians, in 2022, households whose reference person is over 60 years old will suffer the highest price increase (+5.8%). While those whose reference person is less than 30 years old experience the lowest increase (+4.2%).
In addition, explains INSEE, inflation is 0.8 point above the average for owner households and 0.8 point below the average for tenant households.
Finally, the 10% of households with the lowest incomes are faced with inflation that is 0.3 points higher than the average.