Consumer prices (provisional data)

According to preliminary estimates, in June 2020 the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was +0.1% on monthly basis and -0,2% with respect to June 2019 (the same as in the previous month).

The second consecutive month of decrease on annual basis of All items index was mainly due to the confirmation of the wide decreases of prices of both Regulated (-14.1%) and Non-regulated energy products (-11.2%). On the contrary, prices of Food including alcohol still grew clearly, speeding up Unprocessed food (from +3.7% to 4.1%) and slightly slowing down Processed food including alcohol (from 1.7% to 1.5%). Also Tobacco (+3.0%) and Services – miscellaneous (+1.4%) recorded increases of prices by over one percentage point.

Core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) was +0.7% (down from +0.8% in the previous month) and inflation excluding energy was +1.0% (the same as in the previous month).

The increase on monthly basis was mainly due to the increase of prices of Services related to transport (+2.1%) mainly due to the usual seasonal factors.

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food decreased by 0.4% on monthly basis and increased by 2.3% on annual basis (down from +2.4% in the previous month).

In June, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) was zero in the previous month and decreased by 0.4% on annual basis (down from -0.3% in the previous month).

In June preliminary estimates of NIC and HICP have been carried out in the context of the gradual reduction of the seriousness of the Covid-19 crisis and the gradual reopening of most of retail trade activities supplying goods and services. Even if still high, the amount of missing observations decreased. On pages 11-12 the methodological note describes the choices adopted to deal with the ongoing issues and the new situation emerged.