The Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, announced on Saturday September 3 on France Inter that the government would “maintain a shield system in 2023” to cope with soaring energy prices. “We will continue to protect the French and their purchasing power”added the minister.
In place since the fall of 2021, this set of measures has mitigated the impact of inflation on households: the freezing of regulated gas prices at their October 2021 level; the capping of the increase in regulated electricity sale tariffs, which resulted in a rise of only 4% over the year; finally, the discount at the pump, which goes this Thursday from 18 to 30 cents per liter.
“Without the tariff shield, the increase in gas and electricity tariffs would be at least 100% next year! That is an increase of 120 euros on average per month and per household”, assured the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, Thursday in The echoes.
“Arbitrations rendered in the coming days”
According to an INSEE study published Thursday, the “tariff shield” measures taken by the government have halved the effect of soaring energy prices on inflation.
Between the second quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2022, the study period, “the rise in energy prices (gas, electricity and petroleum products) contributed to 3.1 inflation points out of a total of 5.3%”, according to the National Institute of Statistics. Without these measures, “inflation between the second quarters of 2021 and 2022 would have been 3.1 points higher”.
“We will block at a certain level of increase”explained Gabriel Attal, specifying that “the final arbitrations must be rendered in the coming days”. “But we will maintain a protective system [pour les concitoyens] and for purchasing power”, he added. However, the minister pointed out:
“Spending lavishly, in the end, is taxing to repay, and that, we want to avoid it for the French, so we have gone from “whatever it costs” to “how much does it cost”. We are forced to arbitrate and take decisions which, when they are costly for public finances, must be as efficient as possible, which does not mean that there cannot be some effort. »