82% are cutting back on spending as most feel their purchasing power has diminished, according to a new poll
An overwhelming majority of French citizens say they have been forced to cut back on spending while pointing out that they do not feel a slowdown in price increases, a new poll by French research firm Elabe has suggested.
According to the poll released on Thursday, 82% of respondents said they “are tightening their belts,” with 29% saying they are doing so “a lot” and 53% “a little.” Only 18% reported not needing to cut back, the survey indicated.
The poll also showed that 65% of French citizens believe their purchasing power has decreased in recent months, including 27% who said it has decreased a lot and 38% who said it has decreased a little. Meanwhile, 22% said their purchasing power “remained the same” and 13% stated that it had increased.
At the same time, Elabe pointed out that the proportion of people experiencing a major drop in purchasing power is 13% lower than during the inflation peak in November 2022.
The poll also found that despite a decline in inflation, 74% of respondents said they have not noticed any slowdown in daily price increases. In addition, 30% of those surveyed said they have been regularly overdrawn on their credit card limit over the past year, with 14% reporting it happens monthly and 16% several times a year.
At the same time, none of the major political figures is trusted by a majority of French people to ease financial pressures. For example, only 18% have confidence in French President Emmanuel Macron to improve the purchasing power of the population.
In contrast, Marine Le Pen, a key figure in the right-wing National Rally party, and Edouard Philippe, the former prime minister who now chairs the center-right Horizons party, each garnered 34% to do so.
The Elabe survey included 1,001 residents of metropolitan France aged over 18.
As of December 2024, France’s inflation rate stood at 1.3%, down sharply from 4.9% in 2023 and 5.2% in 2022, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). The drop has been attributed to the stabilization of energy and food prices.
France’s economy is expected to grow more slowly in the coming years, with the Bank of France forecasting a growth rate of 0.9% in 2025, revised down from an earlier estimate of 1.2% amid domestic political instability.
In December 2024, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier was forced to resign following a no-confidence vote over his attempt to pass the 2025 budget. The plan, which was aimed at cutting the public deficit from 6.1% to 5% of GDP, faced opposition from both right-wing and left-wing parties, leading to the government’s collapse.
