Consumer prices (provisional data)

In May 2016, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.3 on monthly basis and declined by 0.3% with respect to May 2015, up from -0.5% in April 2016.

The lower decline on annual basis of the All items index is mainly due to the reversal trend of prices of Tobacco (+2.0%, from -0.3% in the previous month) and of Unprocessed food (+0.3%, from -0.5% in April 2016).

Excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +0.6% (up from +0.5 registered in April 2016) and, excluding energy, the inflation was +0.5% (0.1 percentage points higher than that of the previous month).

The increase on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to the rise of prices of Tobacco (+2.4%), of Non-regulated energy products (+1.7%) and of Unprocessed food (+1.0%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was -1.0% (up from -1.1% in April 2016) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was +0.4% (the same rate observed in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods decreased by 0.1 percentage points with respect to April 2016.

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.3% on monthly basis and held steady on annual basis (from -0.2% in the previous month).

In May 2016, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.3 compared with the previous month and decreased by 0.3% with respect to May 2015 (up from -0.4% registered in April 2016).

Core inflation measured by Italian HICP was +0.5% (the same rate observed in April 2016); also excluding Energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, the inflation registered the same rate observed in the previous month (+0.6%). Excluding energy, the inflation was +0.6% (up from +0.5% in the previous month).