She’s undoubtedly again this rattling factor inflation. Client costs in France elevated by 2.4% year-on-year in Could, after 2.2% in April, this enhance being defined by an acceleration in energy pricesindicated INSEE in a provisional estimate printed on Friday. Power costs elevated by 16.8% in Could year-on-year, after 14.3% in April, pushed this month by a rise in gasoline costs.
Costs of providers speed up over one 12 months (+ 2%). The costs of food evolve over one 12 months on the similar charge as in April (+ 1.2%). The harmonized client value index (HICP), which permits comparability between euro zone international locations, elevated by 2.8% year-on-year in Could, after + 2.5% year-on-year in April.
French folks on the alert
Family consumption expenditure in France fell in April, each over one month (-0.5%) and over one 12 months (-0.4%), weighed down by the drop in spending on gas, but in addition on heating as a result of excessive temperatures, INSEE introduced on Friday.
That is a whole lot of numbers there, so a little bit of textual content all the identical. Signal of the instances, “the purchasing power has as soon as once more change into the French folks’s major concern concerning safety in March 2026,” says Franck Lehuédé, director of research and analysis at Crédoc (Analysis Middle for the Research and Remark of Residing Circumstances), citing a latest survey by his group on client developments.
Constructing on “the expertise of 2022-2023”, marked by meals inflation of 20% in two years, customers “reacted very in a short time” and put themselves in “defensive mode”, by limiting or pooling their journeys and happening “vary” of their purchases, continues Frank Lehuédé. Much less journey, fewer manufacturers, much less consumption…
In March, the top of the Mousquetaires/Intermarché group indicated on BFMTV/RMC that he was witnessing “a phenomenon of stockpiling”, by his prospects, of merchandise corresponding to pasta, not “for concern of a scarcity” however to scale back journeys to the grocery store.
A disaster set to final
“The meals market (supermarkets, specialised shops, and so on.) is holding up extraordinarily nicely,” underlines Gaëlle Le Floch, client items professional at Kantar Worldpanel. From the start of January to the top of April, quantity gross sales of meals and drinks elevated by 1% in comparison with the identical interval in 2025, and by 0.4% for all client merchandise (PGC, hygiene and cleansing merchandise included).
The disaster within the Center East will “final”, warned Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. It could possibly be felt extra acutely on the cabinets, because the specter looms of a reopening of business negotiations between supermarkets and suppliers to move on the rise in gas, gasoline and fertilizer prices.
