Consumer prices

In July 2014, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) declined by 0.1% compared with the previous month and rose by 0.1% with respect to July 2013 (down from 0.3% in June 2014). Final data confirm the preliminary ones.

The slowdown of inflation was mainly due to the extension of the decrease on annual basis of prices of Regulated energy products, whereas the contributions of some other groups of products were minor.

Excluding unprocessed food (whose decline on annual basis was stable at -2.9%) and energy, core inflation was 0.6% (0.1 lower than in June 2014); excluding only energy, the inflation was 0.3% (down from 0.5% in June 2014).

The decrease on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to the decline of prices of Fresh fruit (-9.0%) and Fresh vegetables (-3.8%) ‒ on which seasonal factors had an impact ‒ and of prices of Regulated energy products (-3.1%); this decline was partially balanced by the monthly increases of prices of Non-regulated energy products (+0.8%) and of Services related to transport (+1.5%), also the latter mainly due to seasonal factors.

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was -0.6% (from -0.3% in June 2014) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was +0.7% (down from +0.8% in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods increased by 0.2 percentage points with respect to June 2014.

Note. On August 13, 2014, at 18:13, the Full text “Consumer Prices – final data″ has been replaced for a misprint in the reference base year of the Italian HICP reported in the Tables 3 and 4.