Commodities
France to Allow Selling Fuel at Loss to Curb Inflation
- Prime Minister Borne announces plan in Le Parisien Newspaper
- Change to fuel-sale rules would suspend 1963 retail law
A customer refuels his vehicle at a gas station in Paris.
Photographer: Benjamin Girette/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The French government plans to allow gas stations to sell fuel at a loss, overriding a law from 1963, as it struggles to find new ways of containing inflation without adding to vast sums of public money already spent.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said in an interview with Le Parisien that the law would be suspended for a limited period of a “few months.” Such a move would in theory allow greater competition between distributors, who could cut prices below costs and aim to make up lost margin with sales of other products and services.