French Consumer Prices Index Unchanged

        By William Horobin
        PARIS--French consumer price index was unchanged in October from September as food prices rose but energy and manufactured goods prices fell, French statistics agency Insee said Thursday. On year, the CPI was up only 0.5%, Insee said.
        The French government says low inflation is one of the reasons it won't meet its deficit reduction targets this year next. Lower inflation eats into tax receipts at a time when France is already struggling with low economic growth.
        But French ministers have praised the European Central Bank recently for taking action to combat low inflation and the risk of deflation--known as a prolonged decline in prices. In a news conference after the rate decision, ECB President Mario Draghi said the central bank was prepared to act more aggressively to combat ultra low inflation by buying large amounts of private-sector debt and perhaps even government bonds.
        France's HICP--a harmonized measure of annual price changes used by the ECB--rose slightly to 0.5% in October from 0.4% in September, Insee said.
        Still, the rate in France remains well short of the ECB's target of close to 2%.
        -Write to William Horobin at william.horobin@wsj.com
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        (END) Dow Jones Newswires
        November 13, 2014 03:20 ET (08:20 GMT)