Consumer prices

In April 2017, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.4% on monthly basis and by 1.9% compared with April 2016 (up from +1.4% in March). The flash estimate was +1.8%.

In April, the speed up of the annual rate of change of All items index was mainly due to prices of Regulated energy products (+5.7%, from -1.2% in the previous month), to which contributed both Electric energy (+5.4%, from -1.0% in March) and Natural gas (+5.9%, from -1.4%), and also to prices of Services related to transport (+5.5%, up from +2.5% in the previous month).

Excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +1.1%, up from +0.7% in March; excluding energy the inflation was +1.3% (up from +1.2% in the previous month).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was +1.8% (up from +1.7% in March) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was +1.8% (up from +1.0% in the previous month). Therefore, the
inflationary gap between Services and Goods was null (from -0.7 percentage points in March).

The growth on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to the prices of both Services related to transport (+3.3%) and Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+1.2%), which both increased mainly for Easter on April 16 and Liberation Day, a national holiday in Italy that is annually celebrated on April 25. On the contrary prices of Unprocessed food decreased by 1.0% with respect to March 2017.