Consumer prices: provisional data

In March 2016, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) rose by 0.2% compared with the previous month and declined by 0.2% with respect to March 2015, up from -0.3% in February 2016.

Deflation registered by All items index was mainly due, as in February, to Energy and in particular to Non-regulated energy products (-11.2%, from -8.5% in the previous month), even in the presence of the reversal trend of Services related to transport (+0.5%, from -0.7% in the previous month) and some small signals of recovery of the prices of other types of products (Unprocessed food, Durables and Semi-durable goods, Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care), that contributed just to reduce the width of the decrease on annual basis.

Excluding Energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +0.6% (up from +0.5 registered in February 2016) and excluding energy, the inflation was +0.4% (0.1 percentage points higher than that of the previous month).

The increase on monthly basis of the All items index was mainly due to the rise of prices of Services related to Transport (+1.0%) and of diesel for personal transport equipment (+2.5%); these increases were partially balanced by the monthly decline – on which seasonal factors had an impact – of prices of Fresh vegetables (-2.8%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was -1.0% (from -0.7% observed in February 2016) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was +0.7% (up from +0.5% in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods increased by 0.5 percentage points with respect to February 2016.

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food decreased by 0.1% on monthly basis and by 0.3% on annual basis (from -0.4% in the previous month).

In March 2016, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 2.0 compared with the previous month and decreased by 0.3% with respect to March 2015 (down from -0.2% registered in February 2016).

The large increase on monthly basis was mainly due to the end of the winter sales of Clothing and footwear (+29.6% compared with February 2016), which are not taken into account in the national index NIC.

Core inflation measured by Italian HICP was +0.6%, up from +0.5% in February 2016; excluding Energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, the inflation was +0.7% (up from +0.5% in the previous month). Excluding energy, the inflation rose to 0.5% (0.2 percentage points higher than in the previous month).

Next release: 14 April 2016