After the multiple altercations that have taken place in the French streets in recent months against the pension reform promoted by the Government of Emmanuel Macron, now with the intention of reducing the tension generated, the French Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, promised this Friday a price cut on “hundreds of everyday consumer products” starting next month, as a result of pressure on manufacturers and distributors to pass on the lower costs.
“From the month of July, prices will drop in a certain number of references,” Le Maire said in an interview with the BFMTV channel, in which he took the opportunity to issue the warning that there will be sanctions for companies that do not apply these discounts to which they have committed.
“Possible sanctions are still on the table,” he stressed after indicating that he has requested a reduction of margins for agri-food groups. He explained that with the available data it has been verified that “the margin of agri-food companies has progressed strongly in the first months of 2023. They have more than recovered the losses they had in the previous two years. Better for them”.
“The only thing I ask of them – he added – is that they can keep a part of the margins for themselves. It is normal, they have to invest. But a part of the margins have to be returned to consumers” and if they don’t, “we will recover it through taxes.” The distribution groups, for their part, have promised to extend until the end of the year the commercial operation that they had launched under the name of “anti-inflation quarter.”
This device consists of a Price reduction that apply to a series of products chosen by the same groups, essentially their own brands, at the expense of their own margins so as not to harm the activity of farmers and other producers. Year-on-year inflation in France it moderated in May, going to 5.1%, compared to 5.9% in April. This slowdown was partly due to food, which experienced a year-on-year rise of 14.1% in May, after 15% in April.
