Consumer prices

In November 2013, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) decreased by 0.3% compared with the previous month and rose by 0.7% with respect to November 2012 (the provisional estimate was 0.6%).The slowdown in the Italian inflation (0.1 lower than in October 2013) was due to the slowdown of annual dynamics of prices of the most of divisions (only the annual rate of rices of Transport and of Recreation and culture increased).The fall on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to the dereases, compared with October 2013, of prices of Restaurant and hotels (-1.5%) and Transport (-0.9%). Decreases on monthly basis were also observed for prices of Recreation and culture (-0.3%) and Miscellaneous goods and services (-0.1%); for the remaining divisions, slight increases or stability of prices were registered.Concerning Restaurant and hotels, the cause was the large decrease of prices of Accommodation services (-6.4% on monthly basis; +1.1% on annual basis) on which seasonal factors had an impact.With regard to Transport, the main causes were the decrease of prices of Fuels and lubricants (-1.6% compared with the previous month; -4.1% compared with November 2012) and the declines, mainly due to seasonal factors, of prices of Passenger transport by air (-9.7% on monthly basis; +14.3% on annual basis, slowing down from +15.2% of October 2013) and of Passenger transport by sea and inland water way (-5.4% on monthly basis; -5.3% with respect of November 2012).
The divisions, whose prices rose compared with October 2013, registered small increases: the highest one was observed for Food and non-alcoholic beverages and was equal to +0.3%. This rise, on which seasonal factors had an impact, was owing to the increase of prices of unprocessed food and, in particular, of Fresh vegetables (+2.0% on monthly basis; -4.4% on annual basis) and Fresh fruit (+1.8% compared with the previous month; -1.1% with respect to November 2012, from +0.9% observed in the previous month).
Italian core inflation, calculated excluding energy and unprocessed food, was stable at 1.2%.
Italian consumer price index, excluding energy, increased by 1.1% with respect to November 2012 (the same rate registered in October 2013).
- In November 2013, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) declined by 0.3% compared with the previous month and rose by 0.7% with respect to November 2012 (0.1 lower than in October 2013). Also in this case, the preliminary estimate was 0.6%.
  Core inflation measured by Italian HICP was 1.1%, down from 1.2% in October.
  Italian harmonized index of consumer prices, excluding energy, increased by 1.0% with respect to November 2012 (0.2 lower than in October).
- In November 2013, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices at constant tax rates (HICP-CT) declined by 0.3% compared with the previous month and rose by 0.2% with respect to November 2012. The difference between the HICP and HICP-CT growth rates was equal to 0.5 percentage points (as in October 2013). This difference incorporates the impact of the increase of the standard VAT rate from 21% to 22%, in force from the 1st October 2013 (Law n. 99 of the 9th August 2013) and represents the upper limit of the impact on the inflation measured by HICP, assuming an instantaneous pass-through of VAT rate change on the prices paid by the consumer.

Themes:

Prices

Tags:

Typology:

Press release

id:107003