PARIS, May 27 (Xinhua) -- France's consumer price index (CPI) is expected to rise only by 0.7 percent year-on-year in May, marking the lowest increase since February 2021, the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) said Tuesday.
INSEE attributed the expected drop in inflation to a slowdown in service prices, particularly in the transport sector. A sharper decline in communication costs and a deeper fall in energy prices also contributed.
According to INSEE's preliminary report, the service prices are expected to rise by 2.1 percent year-on-year in May, down from 2.4 percent in April, while energy prices are projected to decrease by 8.1 percent in May, against the 7.8 percent in the previous month.
"The current developments are rather disinflationary," said Sylvain Bersinger, an economist at consulting firm Asteres. "It is therefore likely that inflation will remain low until the end of the year," he told the French economic newspaper Les Echos. ■