The increase in the price of cigarette packskeep on going. This Monday, August 20, the cost of certain packs of cigarettes will increase with prices ranging from 7.60 euros and 9.30 euros. The average price of a pack of 20 cigarettes will remain stable at 7.90 euros. This slight change in tobacco prices results from a decree published on Tuesday July 31 in the Official Journal. From now on, “nearly half of the packs of 20 cigarettes always have a price equal to or greater than 8 euros”, specifies the decree.
This small modification is part of the agenda desired by the Ministry of Health, which has set itself a goal of gradually increasing the prices of cigarette packs to reach 10 euros per pack by November 2020.
This goal was among Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promises. The increase by small touches (the previous one took place March 1, 2018) in order to harmonize tobacco prices was justified by the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn in September 2017. “This allows people to prepare, to find the means to quit smoking, it is a calendar which allows everyone to put themselves in the perspective of the shutdown “.
A dissuasive increase in the price of tobacco
Raise the cost of a packet of cigarettes to dissuade the French from smoking : this strategy is defended by the government but makes cringe the tobacconists who record a sharp drop in sales (-9.2% since January 2018). This price increase policy is part of a system of anti-smoking measures (communication campaigns, free telephone line 39 89, etc.) which seem to bear fruit if we judge the downward trend in smokers: in 2017 we had 1 million fewer daily smokers in 2017 compared to 2016, according to the agency Public health France.
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