Consumer prices: provisional data

The Consumer Price Index measures the change in prices over time of a set of goods and
services (CPI basket) representative of Italian household consumption.

Istat estimates that in December 2011:

• the National Consumer Price Index for the whole nation CPI (see Italian NIC) – used to
measure inflation over the entire Italian economic system – rose by 0.4% compared to the
previous month and by 3.3% in comparison to the same month of the previous year;

• the EU Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices HICP (see Italian IPCA) – developed to
facilitate the comparison of inflation between Member States – rose by 0.3% compared to
the previous month and rose by 3.7% in comparison to the same month of the previous
year.