The French consumer price index increased by 0.2% in December 2015 as increasing prices of services and manufacturing products drove up the country’s inflation rate, official data showed on Wednesday, Xinhua reported. On a yearly basis, the CPI rose by 0.2%, the national statistics bureau Insee noted in its monthly report. Last month, the rise in prices stemmed mainly from a seasonal increase of 0.6% in costs of some services, thanks to a 2.2% rise in transport and communication activities. Manufactured products also recorded a positive performance after they grew by 0.3% over the period. Insee data showed a further drop in energy prices and fresh food in December compared to a month earlier. For the seventh successive month, costs of energy lost 1.2% while those of food were down by 0.3% due to a drop in fresh products as “unusually mild temperatures have stimulated the supply of fresh vegetables whose prices fell notably in December,” according to the statistics agency.
