According to the final report from INSEE, consumer prices fell by 0.3% in January after rising by 0.1% in December. Economists had expected a decrease of 0.2%. This decrease is entirely driven by the drop in prices in manufactured products (-1.7% after -0.3%), mainly those of clothing and footwear (-9.2% after -0.3%). Conversely, the prices increased for tobacco (+6.5% after 0.0%), food (+0.2% after 0.0%), energy (+0.1% after -1.2%) and services (+0.1% after +0.6%).
In annual terms, CPI rose by 3.1%, as expected, after rising by 3.7% in November. It marked the lowest reading since January 2022, due to a slowdown in the prices of energy (+1.9% after +5.7%), food (+5.7% after +7.2%) and manufactured products (+0.7% after +1.4%). Conversely, prices of services accelerated slightly (+3.2% after +3.1%).
Meanwhile, the core CPI grew by 3.0% per annum, slowing down compared to December (3.4% per annum). Still, both the headline and core gauges remained well above the European Central Bank's target of 2%.
The data also showed that in January, the harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) - an indicator that allows to compare inflation in France with inflation in European countries - fell by 0.2% on a monthly basis and rose by 3.4% per annum. In December, HICP rose by 0.1% for the month and by 4.1% per annum.