PARIS (Reuters) - French inflation held steady in August at its highest level since March 2012, a preliminary EU-harmonised data from the INSEE statistics agency showed on Friday.
French consumer prices rose 0.6 percent in August from July, giving a 12-month rate of 2.6 percent, slightly above the average estimate of 2.5 percent in Reuters' poll of economists.
A breakdown of the data showed that a slight slowdown in energy prices, up 13.0 percent over one year after 14.3 percent in July, was not enough to compensate for marginally higher food prices, which were up 2.3 percent after 1.9 percent in July.
Separately, INSEE said that producer prices rose 0.6 percent in July, giving a 12-month rate of 4.0 percent.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; editing by Michel Rose)
