France's September inflation accelerates to 3.4%, above forecasts
The monthly reading fell 0.4%, a smaller drop than the 0.5% decline economists had expected.
Published
France's harmonized consumer price index rose 3.4% year-over-year in September, up from 2.6% in August and above the 3.2% consensus forecast. On a monthly basis, prices fell 0.4%, a smaller decline than the 0.5% drop expected and a reversal from August's 0.7% monthly increase.
The filing does not give a breakdown of what drove September's acceleration. INSEE, France's statistics agency, said in July that a similar pickup in annual inflation that month, to 2.1%, was driven by faster price rises in services, including accommodation and communications, along with higher gas and oil prices, according to the French government portal Service-Public.gouv.fr. It is not established whether the same factors were behind September's jump.
The surprise complicates the European Central Bank's path toward further rate cuts more than it does the Federal Reserve's. For US equities, the print carries little direct weight. France's broader macro picture already showed soft spending and weak manufacturing confidence alongside firmer consumer sentiment, and its bond and equity markets have recently moved more on fiscal and credit-rating concerns than on inflation data. There is no clear channel from this reading to US rate expectations or risk appetite, leaving it a data point for eurozone watchers rather than a signal for American markets.