Union: UK should follow French example to keep energy inflation low

Mark Langhammer, NI Regional Secretary for the National Education Union, said that ongoing industrial action on pay, across the public sector, is driven by the cost-of-living crisis and notably the cost of energy.

"The spiraling costs of energy may reduce days or even close schools this year.,” he said. “The Truss Government is wrong to blame ‘global factors’ when huge disparities in international energy inflation are now clear.

"France’s energy inflation stands at 4%. The UK’s is at 178%." He said these figures relate to price increases from late Summer 2021 to late Summer 2022.

"Why the vast differential?" he asked. "We say that France’s advantage derives largely from energy sources being publicly controlled.”

However some French economists took a different perspective. Reuters news agency reports that French government subsidies and aggressive price caps on energy have helped shore up consumer spending and with it economic growth. But maintaining these costly inflation-relief measures is getting harder, and weaning households off the state's largesse may unleash a new wave of price rises down the line, it reported some economists as saying.

"We've made the choice to have a bit less inflation and more debt," said economist Sylvain Bersinger with consultancy Asteres.

"The consumer wins, but the taxpayer loses. There's no magic wand."