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French annual consumer price inflation remained steady in October at 1.8 per cent on an EU-harmonised basis, French statistics office INSEE said today.

Behind the overall number, INSEE reported an 11.1 per cent year-on-year rise in energy prices and a smaller 1.4 per cent rise in the price of services, saying that these were offset to an extent by declines in prices for manufactured goods.

Compared to the previous month, consumer prices in France rose a modest 0.1 per cent in October.

Last Friday, EU statistics office Eurostat gave an early estimate of inflation for the euro zone as a whole, saying the annual rate rose to 1.9 per cent in October from 1.8 the month before. But economists said this was not alarming as the rise was due mainly to food and energy prices and the rate remained within ECB tolerance levels.

Reuters