December 25, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 20, 1423

PARIS, Dec 24: French consumer association, Union Federale des Consommateurs, charges in the latest issue of its magazine that contrary to official accounts, consumer prices in France — and undoubtedly throughout Europe — actually rose by as much as 35 per cent as a result of the introduction of the euro one year ago.

Companies in France and throughout Europe had been accused, at the time of the arrival of the new currency last January, of using introduction of the euro to increase the prices of products, notably by rounding off prices of products in such a way that they ended up considerably more expensive than before.

Official accounts by the French government, but also by those of the other major EU countries, have attempted to calm down public opinion by claiming that only a very small percentage of inflation was in fact attributable to the built-in price hikes that many companies attempted to impose on consumers.

For instance, in France, the governmentally-run statistical office INSEE (Institut national de la statistique et des etudes economiques) recently said that according to its calculations only 0.14 per cent of the 1.4 per cent rise in inflation that it had measured for the first nine months of the year was in fact attributable to the hidden price rises that accompanied arrival of the euro.

As far as the editor of Que Choisir? Magazine is concerned, however, his figures show that the price rise is considerably greater. According to Jean-Paul Geai, who is also an official of the Union federale des consommateurs (UFC) which publishes Que Choisir?, France’s most important consumer publication, says that the prices of a basic list of 55 products that it monitors regularly in 1100 supermarkets and department stores rose on average 8.2 per cent over the past eighteen months.

And, when you look at half of the products in question, he adds, “we were flabbergasted to see that their prices had increased by between 12 per cent and 35 per cent over the corresponding period of time.”

And, if the French government is attempting to play down the revelation made by the very respected consumer organization, the French stores that are being held responsible for the price hike tend, for their part, to more or less go along with the UFC’s conclusions.

Indeed, rather than reply directly to the charges, all they’ve seemingly done so far in reaction to the UFC’s accusations has been to place the blame for the increase on the back of the manufacturers — many of whom are Pan-European and produce the products for stores throughout Europe — saying that all they did was to pass along to consumers the price increases — nothing more, nothing less — that the manufacturers were the first to impose.

As for the manufacturers, they in turn refuse to take the blame, saying that if they were obliged to take advantage of the arrival of the euro to increase prices in the first place, it was largely the fault of the French government — and those of other EU countries — that had originally imposed on them a price freeze prior to introduction of the euro that had forced them to block prices during the last five months of 2001.