(Reuters) -French consumer prices rose slightly less than anticipated in August, as a lower-than-expected decline in energy prices offset a slowdown in services prices, preliminary data from statistics agency INSEE showed on Friday.
France’s harmonised inflation rate, adjusted for comparison with other euro zone countries, was +0.8% year-on-year in August, down from a +0.9% rise in July, and below the average rise of +0.9% expected by economists surveyed by Reuters.
Service prices climbed 2.1% year-on-year, slowed by transport prices, and down from 2.5% in February. Energy prices were 6.2% lower year-on-year after dropping 7.2% the month before, driven by petroleum products, the agency said.
Food and tobacco prices are expected to increase at the same rate as in July, and manufactured goods prices are expected to decrease at a slightly faster rate than in the previous month, INSEE added.
Tobacco price inflation rose 4.0% year-on-year in August, unchanged from July, while food prices increased 1.6% on the same basis, also unchanged from July.
France’s consumer spending in August rose 0.4% from July, INSEE also reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast on average a 0.5% rise from the previous month.
The rise was mainly due to a seasonal climb in the prices of manufactured products after the summer sales, particularly those of clothing, the report showed.
Inflation measured by France’s own consumer price index rose 0.9% over the year through August, down from 1.0% in July.
(Reporting by Dimitri Rhodes; Editing by Matt Scuffham)
