diff --git a/lib/manager/npm/extract/index.ts b/lib/manager/npm/extract/index.ts
index e3a7bf30a47bf3e256d5f09bfcaf7374fe3bae9c..174d1a0543d18ba3855544277116fa753f5d0b57 100644
--- a/lib/manager/npm/extract/index.ts
+++ b/lib/manager/npm/extract/index.ts
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ export async function extractPackageFile(
     if (is.string(config.npmrc) && !config.npmrcMerge) {
       logger.debug(
         { npmrcFileName },
-        'Repo .npmrc file is ignored due to config.npmrc with config.npmrcMerge=force'
+        'Repo .npmrc file is ignored due to config.npmrc with config.npmrcMerge=false'
       );
     } else {
       npmrc = config.npmrc || '';