Do you pay more for inflation than your neighbor? With a price increase of 5.9% over one year in August, inflation continues to erode the purchasing power of the French. But behind this overall figure, households are not all equal in the face of the increase in the cost of living. For some households, inflation is limited to 2.5%, for others, the price increase reached 8.4%, revealed in April a note from the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE).
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“The prices of all goods and services do not evolve in the same way. In fact, each household has its own inflation, depending on its consumption structure”, explains Mathieu Plane, economist at the OFCE and specialist in purchasing power issues. Which households are the most penalized by the increase in receipts or energy bills? Franceinfo has done the accounts.
The poorest hardest hit
Current inflation is mainly driven by soaring energy and food prices. In one year, energy and fuel prices have jumped by almost 30%, according to INSEE. Food products are nearly 7% more expensive over the same period. However, the weight of these expenses is greater in the budget of the most modest. Before the current inflation period, the poorest 10% of households spent an average of 19% of their expenses on groceries, compared to 15% for the wealthiest 10% of households, according to the family budget survey. from INSEE dated 2017. Similarly, energy bills represented 6% of the expenses of the most precarious households, and fuel 4%. Conversely, these items represented only 4 and 3% of the expenses of the wealthiest households.
Disparities also exist even within low-income households. “It is above all households with several children who are affected by the weight of food expenditure”explains the economist Pascale Hébel, member of the marketing consulting firm C-Ways and expert in household consumption.
Part of the inflation suffered by these households was, however, offset by the government aid put in place since the fall of 2021 (energy voucher, tariff shield, inflation bonus, etc.) or by the revaluation of the minimum wage and social minima. “Even if the compensations for low incomes were not full, they were still a little more important than for the other income categories”, observes Eric Heyer, economist at the OFCE. On the other hand, workers whose income is slightly above the minimum wage “have no guarantee of salary increases”notes Mathieu Plane.
Residents of rural areas more exposed to rising energy prices…
The level of income is not the only discriminating criterion in the face of inflation. Among the other factors of inequality, the place of residence is decisive. People in rural areas spend more than average on fuel and energy bills. They devote 12% of their expenses to these items, compared to 6% for a household in the Paris conurbation, according to INSEE.
“Rural households generally have a single house and one or two cars”point Matthew Plane. On the contrary, “if you are an urban household without a car in Paris, in a small well-insulated dwelling, you will not feel the inflation too much”. Lhouseholds in rural areas suffered in April an average inflation of 5.9% over one year. That is almost two points more than the inhabitants of the Paris conurbation (4%), according to INSEE.
…just like old people
The French are also not affected by inflation in the same way depending on their age. In April, inflation averaged 4% over one year for those under 30, while it reached 5.7% for those over 75, notes INSEE. “The older we get, the less we spend on items where there is very little inflation, such as new technologies or travel”notes Pascale Hébel.
On the other hand, seniors are among the biggest spenders on items with high inflation, such as energy or food. “The older you are, the more square meters per inhabitant you have, because you have often kept the family home when the children have left”explains Eric Heyer.
This accommodation “therefore costs more to heat”especially since he has “aged at the same time as you, and may therefore be less well insulated than a recent dwelling”, notes the OFCE economist. Not considering, “the older we get, the more we are at home, and the warmer we get”, emphasizes Pascale Hébel. The over 75s spent 8% of their expenditure on energy bills before the crisis, compared to 3 to 6% for the rest of the population.
These criteria which mean that some French people are more exposed than others to inflation can also be combined. “Older people living in rural areas and with a family to support have an additional inflation of at least four points compared to the French average”, says Pascale Hébel.