Around Vincent Touraine, Olivier Babaupresident of the Sapiens Institute, and Pierre JacquetMember of the Circle of Economists, professor of economic policy at the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech.
Soaring inflation: will we have to get used to it?
This is one of the hot issues that the future tenant of the Élysée will have to manage: the acceleration of inflation and its consequences. INSEE confirmed this at the end of the week, the rise in prices reached 4.5% last month, and even 5.1% if we look at the harmonized price index, which compares us to our European neighbours. A surge largely due to soaring fuel prices, against a backdrop of war in Ukraine, but which also concerns food or building materials.
Already, and to compensate for this runaway, the Smic has been revalued, it will increase to more than 1300 euros net on May 1, and is added to the discount on the price of gasoline at the pump. Will all this be enough to maintain the purchasing power of the French, which has been put to the test for a few months? Isn’t this galloping inflation likely to stir up social discontent? Is inflation here to stay, in other words: will we have to get used to it?
Rising rates: real estate and savings at a turning point?
As a result of runaway inflation, interest rates are rising. A global phenomenon that is beginning to affect real estate loans in France. After years of cheap money, borrowing for housing becomes more complicated. According to the latest figures from the Observatory of Credit Housing CSA, the average rate – all durations combined – continues to rise, it already reached 1.22% in mid-April, against 1.18% in March. So after years of growth, is real estate at a turning point? How to adapt to this new situation? Is it still worth going into debt for housing? At the same time, can the return on savings benefit from this rise in interest rates? Should the rate of the booklet A be raised as requested by the CGT?