L’Delayed energy price explosion for homes. The Minister Delegate for the Budget, Gabriel Attal, announced on France Inter that the tariff shield will be maintained in 2023. “If we did nothing, the electricity bill would increase by 100%, or 120 euros per month. We will block, there too, at a certain level of increase, ”judges the former government spokesperson.
“My state of mind is to say that we must not derail neither the French bill nor our public finances”, assures Gabriel Attal. However, this does not mean that prices will not increase: Bruno Le Maire reminded us that the increase will indeed exist at the beginning of 2023. It will however be “continuous” and will not explode.
This is not the case on the wholesale market: there, the price broke records at the end of the summer, passing 1,000 euros per megawatt/hour.
What is this price shield for?
This tariff shield, extended in 2023 therefore, allows the State to cap the increase in energy tariffs. In the current case, the price of electricity is, for example, increased by a maximum of 4% by the suppliers. Also included in this shield is the reduction in the price of fuel, directly applied at the pump.
According to INSEE, this tariff shield had a positive impact, limiting inflation for households. The total rate for the second quarter of 2022 was 5.3%, it could have been 8.4% without this state aid.
This aid has been expensive: according to the government, the shield has cost 24 billion euros since its deployment in the fall of 2021.