PARIS, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- With the government's economic relief package scheduled to start in September, many French people still chose to tighten their holiday budgets this summer to cope with soaring inflation.

Emmanuelle, a 51-year-old living in Aix-en-Provence, opted for a package tour to the Mediterranean island of Corsica with friends, rather than going off on holiday by herself.

"If I were by myself, with my purchasing power, I could not afford to go on holiday this summer," the nursery daycare manager who declined to give her surname, told Xinhua.

Marion Favart-Guillon, 33, is a civil servant working in the city of Metz. Although she had decided not to economize during her holidays, the "extra spending" left her worried afterward.

Sharing accommodation with her partner near Metz, she found that even with centrally-controlled energy prices, which the government had pledged to cap until the end of 2022, "the energy bill was still expensive."

"My house is heated with fuel oil and wood... Wood is also expensive," she said.

While energy prices have increased drastically throughout Europe, the French government has capped gas bills for residents at 2021 levels, and electricity prices can only increase by 4 percent per year.

Due chiefly to the growing prices of services, food products and to a lesser extent manufactured goods, the yearly inflation in France stood at 6.8 percent in July, according to data published last week by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). Food prices increased by 6.8 percent in July from 5.8 percent in June.

Leon Melkonian, a 67-year-old Paris resident, has managed to save about 100 euros (102 U.S. dollars) per month by buying from budget stores. "It is cheaper than French supermarkets," he told Xinhua, adding that he now economizes on things he used to like.

Nevertheless, he expects government measures to help him improve his living standards.

To boost household purchasing power amid soaring inflation, France's parliament on Aug. 2 approved a bill that will lift pensions and allow companies to make higher tax-free bonus payments to employees.

Under the bill, the legislation increased pensions and some welfare payments by 4 percent and set a cap on rent increases at 3.5 percent. A state-financed rebate of 18 cents per liter on fuel will be increased to 30 cents in September and October.

Meanwhile, civil servants will receive a 3.5 percent pay bump and companies will be able to offer employees annual tax-free bonuses of 6,000 euros, up from 1,000 euros previously.

These measures are expected to cost the French budget about 20 billion euros.

"We have to manage our daily lives," Melkonian told Xinhua. "The French people need to adapt to new situations." (1 euro= 1.02 U.S. dollars) Enditem

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