Record inflation as energy cost up

Gas and electricity price rises come into force today in the same week the inflation hit a 17-year high.

Householders will see a 2% rise in electricity bills and 5% in gas (which has already risen 9.5% this year).

Earlier this week the government statistics group Insee announced that inflation had hit 3.6% in July in comparison with last year – a level not seen since 1991.

Last year, the August prices rises for electricity were just 1.1%.

Despite an announcement that the French economy had shrunk by 0.3% between April and June, finance minister Christine Lagarde, said the decline mostly reflected the deterioration of export levels - something common to all European countries.

"The fundamentals of the French economy are healthy," she said.

Photo:Teq