The FINANCIAL — French consumer prices rose in April from March due to seasonal increases in the price of some services and manufactured goods, official statistics agency Insee said on May 13, according to Nasdaq.
France’s consumer price index was up 0.1% in April from March, and up 0.1% from a year earlier.
France’s HICP–a harmonized measure of annual price changes used by the European Central Bank–also rose 0.1% on the year in April, compared with a flat reading in March. The ECB targets inflation close to 2%.
The French government has warned that inflation is running below expectations. Low inflation hurts tax receipts– particularly sales taxes–for the government at a time when France is straining to reduce its budget deficit.
Finance Minister Michel Sapin on Wednesday said he expected a budget deficit of 3.8% in 2015, helped in part by the faster-than-expected growth Frane posted in the first three months of the year.
Mr. Sapin praised the ECB’s “excellent” program of massive government bond purchases for helping lift the eurozone economy.
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