France inflation accelerated in December on rising costs of energy and services, provisional data from the statistical office INSEE showed on Thursday.
The consumer price index posted an annual increase of 3.7 percent in December, following a gain of 3.5 percent in November. Nonetheless, this was weaker than economists' forecast of 3.8 percent.
EU harmonized inflation advanced to 4.1 percent, in line with expectations, from 3.9 percent in the prior month.
This increase in inflation was due to the acceleration in prices of energy and services. Energy price inflation accelerated to 5.6 percent from 3.1 percent. Cost of services gained 3.1 percent, faster than the 2.8 percent rise a month ago.
Meanwhile, food price inflation softened to 7.1 percent from 7.7 percent and manufactured product prices registered a slower growth of 1.4 percent after a 1.9 percent rise.
Month-on-month, both the CPI and the harmonized index of consumer prices rebounded 0.1 percent after a 0.2 percent drop in November, data showed.
