Paris CNN —The number of price-capped products in French supermarkets will double to 5,000, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday, as data revealed another month of double-digit food inflation.
Speaking to French broadcaster France2, Le Maire also criticized several multinational companies, including Unilever (UL) and PepsiCo (PEP), for not doing enough to help French consumers.
The price caps, agreed with producers and distributors, aim “to definitively break the spiral of food prices,” he said, noting that the affected products made up around a quarter of a typical supermarket’s offerings.
In June, Le Maire said 75 top food companies had agreed to cut prices on hundreds of products from July in line with declines in raw material costs.
According to provisional data released by the country’s statistics institute Thursday, French food prices rose 11.1% this month compared with a year ago, less than they did in July but still more than double the rate of overall inflation.
Persons:
Bruno Le Maire, France2, Le Maire, “, ”, ” Le Maire, Olesya Dmitracova
Organizations:
Paris CNN, Unilever, UL, PepsiCo, Nestle