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Press release

Consumer prices (provisional data)

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In March 2015, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) rose by 0.1% compared with the previous month and declined by 0.1% with respect to March 2014 (the same annual rate of change observed in February 2015).

The stability of the decline on annual basis of the All items index is the synthesis on one hand of the reduction of the annual decrease of prices of Non-regulated energy products (-9.0%, from -12.8% in the previous month) and on the other hand of the slowdown of the annual growth of prices of services and, in particular, of prices of Services related to transport (+0.6%, from +1.4% in February 2015).

Excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was 0.4% (down from +0.6% in the previous month); excluding energy, the inflation was 0.5% (0.2 lower than in February 2015).

The increase on monthly basis of the All items index was mainly due to the rise of prices of Non-regulated energy products (+3.9%), with the marked rise of prices of fuels; this increase was partially balanced by the monthly decline of prices of Fresh vegetables (-3.2%), on which seasonal factors had an impact.

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was -0.6% (from -0.9% observed in February 2015) and the annual rate of prices of Services was +0.5% (down from +0.8% in the previous month). As consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods decreased by 0.6 percentage points with respect to February 2015.

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food decreased by 0.1% on monthly basis and rose by 0.9% on annual basis (up from +0.7% in the previous month).

In March 2015, according to the preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) rose by 2.0% compared with the previous month and declined by 0.1% with respect to March 2014 (down from +0.1% in February 2015). The monthly increase was mainly due to the end of the winter sales of Clothing and footwear (+29.3% with respect to February 2015), which are not taken into account in the national index NIC.

Core inflation measured by Italian HICP was 0.5%, down from 0.9% in February 2015; excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, the inflation was 0.3% (0.6 lower than in February 2015). Excluding energy, the inflation was 0.6%, down from 1.0% registered in the previous month.

Next release: 14 April 2015

Reference period: March 2015

Date of Issue: 31 March 2015

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