Consumer prices

In May 2014, 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). Final data confirm the preliminary ones.

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, 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). Also in this case, final data confirm the preliminary ones.

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).

In May 2014, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices at constant tax rates (HICP-CT) decreased by 0.2% compared with April 2014 and held steady with respect to May 2013. The difference between the HICP and HICP-CT growth rates was equal to 0.4 percentage points (0.1 higher than in April). This difference incorporates the effects of changes in indirect taxes, which occurred in the last twelve months and, in particular, the impact of the rise of fuels excises that took place from the 1st of March (Law n. 98 of the 9th August 2013) and 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). It should be noted that it represents the upper limit of the impact of changes in indirect taxes occurred in the last twelve months on HICP, assuming their full and instantaneous pass-through on prices paid by consumers.

Note. On August 13, 2014, at 18:10, the Full text “Consumer Prices – final data″ has been replaced for a misprint in the reference base year of the Italian HICP reported in the Tables 3 and 4.