France to cut restaurant prices from July 1st (maybe)

kitchen
Originally uploaded by malias.

From July 1st 2009 TVA (VAT) in restaurants in France will drop from 19.6% to as low as 5.5%. The cut was agreed with EU finance ministers back in April in order to kick start trade in the sluggish restaurant industry.

In theory this cut should be passed on directly to the consumers whether cafes and restaurants do this in practice remains to be seen.

Certainly there is a feeling that restaurant prices in Paris are too high maybe this cut will start bringing customers back to the tables.