Consumer prices (provisional)

In November 2017, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) decreased by 0.2% on monthly basis and increased by 0.9% compared with November 2016 (it was +1.0% in October 2017).

In November, the further slight slowdown of the growth on annual basis of All items index was mainly due to the deceleration of prices of Unprocessed food (+3.2% down from +3.8% in October) and Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+0.9% down from +1.4%), partially offset by the acceleration of prices of Non-regulated energy products (+5.0%, up from +4.3% in the previous month).

As a consequence, Excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +0.4% (0.1 percentage points lower than in October) and inflation excluding energy was +0.6% (+0.7% in the previous month).

The decrease on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to the prices of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (-1.4%) and Services related to transport (-1.0%). Both of them were affected by seasonal factors. These dynamics were slightly offset by the increase on monthly basis in prices of Non-regulated energy products (+1.3%) because of fuels and diesel.

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was +1.3% (up from +1.2% in October) and that one of prices of Services was +0.5% (down from +0.7%). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods was still negative and equal to -0.8 percentage points (it was -0.5 in October 2017).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.2% on monthly basis and by 1.5% on annual basis (down from +1.7% in the previous month).

In November 2017, according to preliminary estimates, the rate of change of Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) decreased by 0.2% compared with the previous month and increased by +1.1% with respect to November 2016 (as in the previous month).

Core inflation, measured by Italian HICP, was +0.4% (down from 0.5% in October). Also inflation excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco (+0.4%) and inflation excluding Energy (+0.7%) decelerated (both of them 0.1 percentage points lower than in October).