France to allow loss-making petrol sales to bust fuel inflation

PARIS, Sept 18 (AFP): France will lift a ban on below-cost sales to bring down fuel prices, Finance and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday, hoping to soothe consumers' inflation anxieties.
With a draft law set for debate in October, "I hope it will come into force from the beginning of December," Le Maire told broadcaster France 02.
Selling products at a loss has been mostly banned in France since 1963, over fears larger retailers could drive small competitors out of business by offering artificially low prices whose costs they could afford to absorb.
But Paris is extremely sensitive to discontent over rising fuel costs as prices soar-remembering the massive and sometimes violent "Yellow Vests" protests sparked by a planned new fuel tax in 2018-19.
"This never-before-seen measure will give us concrete results for the French public, without subsidising fuel," Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told daily Le Parisien at the weekend.
"The state can't bear the cost of inflation by itself, otherwise that will deepen the deficit."