Consumer prices (provisional data)

In December 2017, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.4% on monthly basis and by 0.9 with respect to December 2016 (the same annual rate of change observed in November 2017).

In 2017, the average annual rate of change of consumer prices, measured by NIC, was positive again (+1.2%, from -0.1% in 2016); excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +0.7% (up from +0.5% in 2016).

In December, the stability of the annual rate of change of All items index was due to the balancing of opposing dynamics: the speed-up of the annual growth of prices of Services related to transport (+2.8%, from +2.2% in the previous month) was offset by the slowdown of the annual growth of prices of both Unprocessed food (+2.5% from +3.2% in the previous month) and Non-regulated energy products (+4.4% from +5.0% in November 2017).

Excluding energy and unprocessed food,
core inflation in December was +0.4% and inflation excluding energy was +0.6% (both of them as in November 2017).

The increase on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to prices of Services related to transport (+2.5%) and to a less extent to prices of Non-regulated energy products (+0.6%), Unprocessed food and Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (both of them +0.4%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was +1.1% (down from 1.3% in November) and that one of prices of Services was +0.6% (up from +0.5%). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods was still negative and equal to -0.5 percentage points (it was -0.8 in November 2017).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.1% on monthly basis and by 1.3% on annual basis (up from +1.6% observed in the previous month).

In December 2017, according to preliminary estimates, the rate of change of Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP)
increased by 0.3% compared with the previous month and by 1.0% with respect to December 2016 (it was +1.1% in November 2017).

While core inflation, measured by Italian HICP (+0.5%) and inflation excluding energy, food alcohol and tobacco (+0.4%) recorded the same annual rates of change observed in November 2017, inflation excluding energy (+0.6%) decelerated by 0.1 percentage points (it was +0.7% in the previous month).

The average annual inflation rate for 2017, measured by Italian HICP, was equal to +1.3% (from -0.1 in 2016); excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +0.8% (up from +0.5% in 2016).