Year on year, the inflation rate slowed to 1.9 percent, it said.     Lower energy prices were offset by a rise in the cost of food and services linked to tourism and to a lesser extent, manufactured goods

Comsumer prices had been rising steadily since August, hitting a peak of around 2.5 percent, but have been dropping since April.

When tobacco products were stripped out of the calculation, the consumer price index was up 2.0 percent on a 12-month seasonally adjusted basis, INSEE said.