According to INSEE, the fall in inflation was confirmed in February

Inflation, which reflects the increase in consumer prices (CPI), will observe a further deceleration to 2.9% in February (compared to 3.1% in January) in a year, according to provisional estimates at the end of the month, carried out periodically. National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSC).

One-year inflation will rise to 2.9% in February 2024 from 3.1 in January of the same year. ” According to provisional estimates made at the end of the month, consumer prices will rise 2.9% year-on-year in February 2024 after still +3.1% year-on-year in January. This reduction in inflation would be due to a fall in the prices of food, manufactured goods and services over a year.

Conversely, energy and tobacco prices will accelerate », suggests the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies in its letter No. 50 published on February 29.

Over a month,” Consumer prices should rebound in February 2024 (+0.8% after -0.2% in January). This recovery will be driven by increases in the prices of services, particularly fares and transport, as well as increases in the prices of energy, particularly electricity, manufactured goods and tobacco. On the contrary, food prices should decrease slightly in a month », notes the same source.

Inflation comes down as food prices ease

The food index rose to 3.6% in February 2024, from 5.7% in the previous month. In detail, there is a significant slowdown in fresh products, going from 7.9% to 0.5% in the same period, and for the remaining food products from 5.3% to 4.1%.

Regarding tobacco, its index increased to 18.7% in February compared to 16.8% in January 2024. Energy prices also increased by 1.9% to 4.4%. For services and manufactured goods, they rose from 3.4% to 3.1% and from 0.7% to 0.3% between January and February of the current year, respectively.

According to INSEE, inflation fell in a year in February 2024, despite a sharp rise in prices in a month, “ Basic effects ” Further, the institute expects the harmonized consumer price index (HICP) to increase by 3.1% year-on-year in February 2024, compared to 3.4% in January. The index should rebound to over 0.9% in one month, after -0.2% in January.

To understand things better and see the difference between CPI and HICP, you should know that the latter is used for comparison between the member countries of the European Union. In France, it counts for all households.

The main difference between the HICP and the CPI concerns health costs: the first follows net prices of social security compensation, while the second follows gross prices, explains INSEE, which plans to publish the final results on March 15, 2024 at 8:45 a.m. is