Consumer prices: provisional data

In May 2014, according to provisional estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) decreased by 0.1% compared with the previous month and rose by 0.5% with respect to May 2013 (0.1 lower than in April 2014).

The slowdown of inflation was mainly due to the slowdown of the annual growth of prices of Services related to transport and to the extension of the decrease on annual basis of prices of Unprocessed food. This dynamics was partially offset by the annual growth of prices of Non-regulated energy products (which declined in the nine previous months).

Therefore, excluding unprocessed food and energy, core inflation was 0.8% (0.2 lower than in April 2014) and excluding only energy, the inflation was 0.6% (down from 0.9% in April 2014).

The decrease on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to the decline ‒ on which seasonal factors had an impact ‒ of prices of Services related to transport (-1.7%) and of Services related to communication (-1.1%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was -0.1% (from -0.2% in April 2014) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was +0.9% (down from +1.4% in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods declined by 0.6 percentage points with respect to April 2014.
Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food rose by 0.1% both on monthly and on annual basis, slowing down from the annual rate observed in April 2014 (+0.5%).

In May 2014, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) declined by 0.1% compared with the previous month and rose by 0.4% with respect to May 2013 (0.1 lower than in April 2014).

Core inflation measured by Italian HICP was 0.8%, down from 1.0% in April 2014; excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, the inflation was 0.8% from 1.1% registered in the previous month. Italian HICP, excluding energy, increased by 0.6% with respect to May 2013 (0.3 lower than in April 2014).