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By Dominique Vidalon
PARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - France's finance minister
urged food retailers on Monday to do more to help consumers cope
with high prices, as the government leans on them to agree to
sell an anti-inflation basket of everyday essential goods at
knockdown prices.
"The rise in food prices is a major concern and everyone
must take its share, including retailers," Bruno Le Maire told
RTL radio.
"The state must do its share but retailers must also do
more," he added.
The government wants big retail chains such as Carrefour , Casino and the family-owned grocery
dynasties Auchan and E. Leclerc, to sell a basket of about 50
everyday items at purchasing price from next month.
However, only smaller chains such as discounter Lidl and
Systeme U, which launched its own action plan covering 150
private label products earlier this month, have agreed to the
government initiative, which is not mandatory.
Some retailers such as Carrefour say they have already taken
action by blocking prices on a set number of goods.
Others, including Auchan, have since responded by launching
their own initiatives, saying there was a need to focus the
basket more on fresh products such as meat, fish, fruits and
vegetables.
The INSEE official statistics agency forecast last week that
food price inflation would remain at 13% through the first half
of the year.
Food prices were expected to become a bigger driver in the
coming months of overall inflation, which was forecast
nonetheless to ease from 6.0% in January to 5.0% by June.
The finance ministry conducted an investigation into food
retailers' margins last year, but did not find evidence of price
gouging.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Additional reporting by Leigh
Thomas; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Tassilo Hummel and Shounak
Dasgupta)
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