Paris - XINHUA
French consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.3 percent in December as soaring prices of services and energy costs drove up the country's inflation rate, official data showed Tuesday.
On yearly basis, the CPI jumped by 0.7 percent, the national statistics bureau Insee noted in its monthly report.
"The largest upward pressures on the change in the CPI of December 2013 came mainly from seasonally price increases of some services and manufactured products and from a rebound in prices of petroleum product and fresh foodstuffs," Insee said.
Last month's prices of services rose by 0.5 percent on growing prices of some services linked with the holidays at the year ending, according to the report.
Due to a growth in prices of petroleum products, energy costs rebounded by 0.7 percent after they had decreased by 0.6 percent in November while prices of manufactured products and food reported a slight increase.