Purchasing power and inflation appear to be the main economic concerns of the French, at least 60% of them, according to a Banque de France study conducted in June with the CSA Institute and published this Thursday. The French, who have a reputation as strangers to economic phenomena, however, seem to be very interested in the issue of price increases, which have complicated their lives since the beginning of the Ukrainian war.
According to data from the Banque de France, 96% of households perceive a general increase in prices over the past 12 months. in October, within a year, it reached 6.2%, including 12% of food products. In June, at the time of the survey, inflation was already 5.8%… More surprisingly, 82% of French people believe, not rightly so, that monetary policy is affecting their purchasing power at the moment.
Biases found in many countries
In detail, household responses to perceived and expected price increases are very different. “They depend in particular on their age, gender or degree, but also on the everyday experience of consumers, which underlines the importance of clear and decisive communication about the general state of the economy.“, says the Bank of France.
The research thus shows that women have a higher perception of inflation than men, by almost 2 points. This result is by no means Franco-French, it has been obtained in many countries, especially in the USA. However, economists have shownthat given information about the gender of the person responsible for the purchase, this difference in perception became insignificant;“.
Age plays an equally important role in explaining differences in perceptions of inflation. “Younger respondents perceive higher inflation than older respondents“, the Bank of France elaborates. One possible explanation for these differences is that the perceived level of inflation depends on past experience, economists argue.
Source: Le Figaro
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