• France October final CPI +3.4% vs +3.4% y/y prelim
• Prior +3.1%
• France October final HICP +3.7% vs +3.8% y/y prelim
• Prior +3.4%

The final report here confirms a further acceleration in French inflation pressures to start the final quarter of the year. That owes much to another jump in energy prices, which climbed by another 1.9% on the month and are up by 24.1% compared to October last year. The annual estimate is once again after after the estimates for August and September of +16.7% and +21.3% respectively.

That being said, core annual inflation also picked up in October in moving to 1.7% – up from 1.5% in September. That comes as services inflation continues to rise further as well, moving up to 2.6% in October – up from 2.4% in September and 1.9% in August. Ouch.

With that, it reaffirms that price pressures in Europe’s second-largest economy are continuing to intensify and at a rather awkward time. With French growth conditions struggling and fiscal risks mounting, it is making for a rather untimely backdrop for policymakers to be dealing with stronger inflation.

As such, that will keep ECB policymakers on their toes in navigating the next steps. For now, the report here will just reinforce expectations of another rate hike in December with markets also pricing in roughly 82% odds of that at the moment.

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.