<span style="color: #222222;">The French government has announced a one-off payment of '100 ($116) for each citizen whose monthly net income is '2,000 or less, to help counter the surge in fuel and energy prices.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The inflation allowance will go to about 38 million French people automatically, including those who do not drive a car or ride a motorbike. The first payments will go to business employees in late December. Civil servants, students and pensioners will get theirs in early 2022.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Some 13 million pensioners and two-thirds of students will be among those who receive the '100. It will also go to about half of all workers, as '2,000 is the average net monthly income.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The '100 payment will be tax-free and Prime Minister Jean Castex said it would cost the government '3.8bn (£3($4.4bn). That would be far less than the cost of cutting fuel duty, he said.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Europe is facing widespread discontent after world energy prices spiked, largely a result of huge demand from businesses recovering from the long Covid paralysis. The energy market turmoil has had a knock-on effect, disrupting supply chains and causing some shortages of fuel and other consumer goods.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">President Emmanuel Macron is six months away from a presidential election and the spike in energy prices threatens to trigger a new wave of mass protests.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The "gilets jaunes" (yellow vest) protests in 2018 escalated from protests over fuel duty to a much wider anti-government movement. Mr Castex said a cap on household gas prices would remain in place until the end of 2022, as world energy prices were expected to fall only gradually.</span>