French Inflation Falls Back Below 2% as Energy Price Surge Fades

France's annual inflation rate slowed to 1.8% in June 2026, down from an over-two-year high of 2.4% in May, national statistics office INSEE confirmed in final data released on 10 July. The reading came in below economists' expectations of around 2.1% and marks the first decline in consumer price inflation this year, bringing the rate back below the symbolic 2% threshold. The slowdown was driven primarily by a sharp moderation in energy price growth, which eased to 11.0% year on year from 16.6% in May, after a mid-June memorandum between Iran and the United States helped push oil prices lower. Services inflation cooled to 1.9% from 2.1%, food inflation slowed to 0.9%, and manufactured goods prices fell more steeply at 1.1%, partly due to a calendar effect in which three days of seasonal sales fell within June's collection period compared with none a year earlier. Core inflation, which strips out volatile items, dropped markedly to 1.0% from 1.5%. On a monthly basis prices fell 0.3%, the first decline since January. The EU-harmonised measure eased to 2.0% from 2.8%. INSEE nonetheless expects inflation to reaccelerate from August, reaching around 2.7% by December.