France - Consumer Price Index (CPI)

For France, the consumer price index is the official instrument for measuring inflation. It allows an estimate, between two given periods, of the average change in the prices of goods and services consumed by households. It is a summary gauge of movements in prices of products on a constant-quality basis. Monthly from 1990.

Consumer price index

Active:

• Classification: ECOICOP ver.2
• Measurement: Fixed-base index relative to 2025 (Index 2025=100)
• Adjustments:
  • Seasonally adjusted (SA)
  • Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Monthly
• Start date: As early as 1996m1
• Geo coverage:
  • France incl. DOMs (IFRA)
  • France excl. DOMs ("metropolitan France") (IFRA_XDOM)
  • DOM (select 4x IFRA_^^)
• All concept-geo pairs exist: No

Predecessors:

• ECOICOP ver.1, 2015=100 - 1990m1 to 2025m12
• 1998=100 - 1990m1 or 1998m1 to 2015m12 ("_98")

Global concept alias:

• CPI

Harmonized index of consumer prices

Active:

• Measurement: Fixed-base index relative to 2025 (Index 2025=100)
• Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Monthly
• Start date: 1996m1
• Geo coverage: France incl. DOMs (IFRA)

Predecessors:

• 2015=100 - 1996m1 to 2025m12
• 2005=100 - 1996m1 to 2015m12 ("_05")

Global concept alias:

• HICP

The geographic coverage is the national territory of France, including four of the five overseas departments (except Mayotte). The consumer price index (CPI) covers almost all goods and services consumed on the French territory by resident and non-resident households (for example, tourists). Only a few percentages of goods and services are not covered by the CPI, mainly private hospital services and life insurance. The CPI covered actually 97% of its scope in 2016.

The basic structure is the international classification COICOP for its first four levels, plus a fifth level specific to the IPC. This structure includes 12 consumption functions, 117 groupings into 303 groups, and a few short-term groupings. Since January 2016, the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) has published a flash estimate at the end of every month. This index, leading indicator of inflation, is intended for useprimarily by economists. It should not be used to index-link a contract.

The definitive CPI is published monthly around the 13th of the following month in an issue of the short-term publication Informations Rapides. Insee also publishes about a hundred series of average prices for individual items. Every year, at mid-January, an Informations Rapides is published which includes the annual averages by functions, groups and posts. Those are simple averages of the monthly indexes.

The index base period is periodically advanced.

Moody's Analytics supplements

For the general index (both NSA and SA), we back-extend (1955m1 to 1995m12) using predecessor(s) and IMF IFS.

For electricity (0451), we back-extend (1990m1 to 1995m12).

For HICP, we construct a seasonally adjusted counterpart using the X-13ARIMA-SEATS program.

Further reading

At the source:

• Sources and method - Consumer Price Index / CPI
• Consumer price index: Results by product groupings and detailed products (COICOP)
• Table 011814630: Consumer Price Index - Base 2025 - All households - France - COICOP classification: 00 - All items
• Table 011812231: HICP - Reference year 2025=100 - All households - France - COICOP classification: 00 - Total 

At Eurostat:

• Harmonised indices of consumer prices (HICP) » Overview

At IMF (SDDS Plus):

• Price index: Consumer prices (Jan 2026)

• Sep 2005 - Initial version.
• Jul 2011 - Addendum of DOMs.
• Jan 2012 - Addendum of SA supplement.
• Apr 2016 - Rebased to 2015.
• Nov 2016 - Addendum of core CPI.
• Mar 2022 - Back-extension.
• 27 Feb 2026, Phillip Thorne - Reclassified and rebased: Properties, Moody's Analytics supplements, Further reading.