Consumer prices

In December 2018 the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) decreased by 0.1% on monthly basis and increased by 1.1% with respect to December 2017 (down from +1.6% in the previous month), confirming the flash estimate.

In 2018, the average annual rate of change of consumer prices, measured by NIC, was +1.2% and excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +0.7%, the same as in 2017 for both.

In December, the slowdown of the growth on annual basis of All items index was mainly due to prices of Non regulated energy products (from +7.8% in November to +2.6%) and to a lesser extent, to prices of Processed food including alcohol (from +1.1% to +0.5%) and of Services related to transport (from +2.0% to +0.6%).

Both Core inflation excluding energy and unprocessed food and inflation excluding energy were +0.6% (down from +0.7% in the previous month).

The decrease on monthly basis of All items index was especially due to prices of Non regulated energy products (-4.2%) and of Processed food including alcohol (-0.6%), only partially offset by the increase of prices of Services related to transport (+1.1%).

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

In December 2018, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) decreased by 0.1% with respect to the previous month and increased by 1.2% with respect to December 2017 (the annual rate of change observed in November was +1.6%), confirming the flash estimate. The average annual rate of change of HICP was +1.2% (+1.3% in 2017).

On average, in 2018, inflation measured by HICP was higher for households with less purchasing power (+1.5%, from +1.4% in 2017) than for households with greater spending power (+1.1%, from 1.3%).