France to uphold electricity price caps until early 2025, finance minister says (updated)

Electricite de France SA

21/04/2023 08:46

(Adds detail, context)
       PARIS, April 21 (Reuters) - France's cap on electricity
price hikes will stay in place beyond 2023 and likely be phased
out over a two-year period, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said
on Friday, arguing power prices haven't "normalised" yet. 
    "Electricity prices haven't returned to normal, so we will
take a little more time to withdraw the price cap. I give us
another two years until early 2025," Le Maire told broadcaster
LCI in an interview.
    European electricity prices soared last year, mainly driven
by fallout from the war in Ukraine and record-low nuclear output
in France, where state-owned utility EDF  EDF.PA  is rushing to
fix reactors affected by stress corrosion.
    Maintaining price caps beyond this year will further strain
EDF's finances as the utility scrambles to hire and train enough
staffers to build several new nuclear plants over the coming
decades.
    Le Maire, however, said the government will likely end
similar household price caps for natural gas at the end of 2023,
because gas prices have lowered significantly in recent months
after spiking in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
    The government of President Emmanuel Macron has made it a
priority to shield citizens from soaring bills amid high
inflation rates across the eurozone while anger has mounted at
home over a two-year rise of the legal retirement age.
    In addition to a 15% price hike limitation on energy
tariffs, the government has also pressured retailers to
guarantee affordable food prices.

 (Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Benoit Van
Overstraeten and Christopher Cushing)
 ((tassilo.hummel@thomsonreuters.com ; Twitter handle:
@tassilo_hummel;))