Consumer prices (provisional data)

In October 2016, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was stable on monthly basis and decreased by 0.1% with respect to October 2015, from +0.1% in September 2016.

The decline on annual basis of the All items index was still determined by Energy products whose decline was enlarged slightly (-3.6%, from -3.4% in September 2016), because larger decline of prices of Energy regulated (-6.0%, from -3.8% in September 2016) was partly offset by lower decline of Non-regulated energy products (-0.8%, from -2.7% in the previous month). Other deflationary contributes were brought by other types of products: among these the most notable were the reversal trend of Unprocessed food (-0.4%, from +0.4% in September 2016) and the zeroing of the growth of prices of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from + 0.6% in September 2016).

Therefore, excluding energy the inflation slowed down (+0.2%, from +0.5% in the previous month); likewise excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +0.2%, down from +0.5% in September 2016.

The stability on monthly basis of All items index was the result of changes of prices close to zero of most part of the types of product. The exceptions were the prices of Non-regulated energy products (+1.1%), whose increase was offset by decreases of those of Services related to transport (-1.2%) and Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (-0.4%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was -0.4% (down from -0.2% in September 2016) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was +0.1% (down from +0.4% in the previous month). Therefore, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods decreased by 0.1 percentage points with respect to September 2016.

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food held steady on monthly basis and decreased by 0.3% on annual basis (0.3 percentage points lower than the rate of change of the previous month).

In October 2016, according to preliminary estimates, the rate of change of Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.2% with respect to the previous month and declined by 0.1% with respect to October 2015 (the annual rate of change observed in September was +0.1%).

Core inflation measured by Italian HICP was 0.2% (down from +0.5% in September 2016); both the inflation excluding Energy, food, alcohol and tobacco and that excluding Energy were 0.2% (both from +0.4% in September 2016).