PARIS - At the Marché d'Aligre, a bustling open-air food and antiques market in the Bastille district of central Paris, Mr Mohamed Sharif grabbed a piece of chalk and reluctantly marked up the price of the fragrant Valencia clementines that he sells to throngs of shoppers.
A record annual increase in prices, to 4.9 per cent in the eurozone last month, is affecting Europe's businesses, factories and commerce. But people trying to put food on the table are also beginning to get squeezed. But costs for a wide variety of goods, from pork to passion fruit, have climbed with the inflationary surge. Among the market's stall keepers and modest-income shoppers, the impact is already being felt. And many are preparing for worse.
Mr Hicham El Aoual, 27, opened a bag to reveal his purchases: orange juice, yogurt and other basics that cost him €15. These days, he said, he tries to avoid big French supermarkets, where prices for the same basket of goods are nearly double. At bakeries around France, the price of a traditional baguette is projected to rise up to 10 cents in the new year. PHOTO: PEXELS
Higher feed and fuel prices have exacerbated a decline in French milk production, squeezing dairy producers and raising costs for cheesemakers, she said.