France published two inflation rates for July, 2.1 percent on its own index and 2.4 percent on the European one
Two figures for the same month, three tenths apart.
Insee published the provisional French consumer price index for July on Friday. On the national measure, the indice des prix a la consommation, prices stood 2.1 percent above July 2025, after 1.8 percent in June. On the harmonised index the European Union uses to compare member states, they stood 2.4 percent above, after 2.0 percent. Both measures rose 0.6 percent on the month, having fallen 0.3 percent in June.
The gap is not a discrepancy. The two indices are built to cover slightly different ground, the national one is the measure written into French contracts, and the harmonised one is the measure Eurostat aggregates into the euro area figure, which makes it the number that travels.
What the release says moved
Insee attributes the annual acceleration to two components and names them. Services prices sped up, to 2.3 percent from 1.9 percent, and the release singles out accommodation services and communication services; that line carries 5,195 of the index's 10,000 weight parts and therefore carries most of its movement. Energy sped up as well, to 12.4 percent from 11.0 percent, which Insee puts down to gas and petroleum products. In July 2025 the same energy line read minus 7.2 percent.
Food did not move at all in annual terms, holding at 0.9 percent for a second month, although fresh produce inside it went from 2.7 percent to 3.8 percent. Tobacco held at 3.3 percent.
Manufactured goods are still cheaper than they were a year ago, by 0.7 percent, and that is a shallower fall than June's 1.1 percent. The reason Insee gives is a calendar rather than a market: June 2026 contained the first days of the summer sales and June 2025 contained none, a difference the release refers back to its methodological note on the 2026 changes. The sales then show up on the monthly side, where manufactured goods prices fell in July.
The warnings the document prints on itself
There are two, and they sit above the text. The indices are provisional, computed on a restricted field of price observations and on estimates of some tariffs not yet available, and Insee states plainly that they must not be used for contractual revaluations. Definitive results follow on 14 August. The next provisional reading, covering August, is scheduled for 28 August at 08h45 Paris time.
One point of housekeeping for anyone comparing against an older table. This one is expressed on a base of 100 for the year 2025, using 2026 weights.
