By William Horobin

PARIS--French consumer prices dropped 0.4% in July from June due mainly to declines in the prices of manufactured goods during the summer sales season, statistics agency Insee said Friday.

The provisional reading of the consumer price index was also weighed down by a decline in energy prices, Insee said.

Still, the measures of inflation watched by the European Central Bank--a harmonized reading of annual price changes--rose 0.4%, marking an acceleration from the 0.3% recorded in June.

Write to William Horobin at william.horobin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 29, 2016 03:10 ET (07:10 GMT)