Consumer prices (provisional data)

According to preliminary estimates, in April 2019 the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.2% on monthly basis and by 1.1% with respect to April 2018, up from +1,0% in the previous month.

The slight acceleration of the growth on annual basis of All items index was mainly due to prices of Services related to transport (from +0.5% to +2.8%), and, to a lesser extent, of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +0.9% to +1.4%) and of Non-regulated energy products (from +3.3% to +3.7%). These accelerations prevailed on the slowdown of prices of other types of product and in particular of both the components of Food including alcohol (Unprocessed food from +1.9% to +1.0%, Processed food including alcohol from 0.7% to zero).

The core inflation excluding energy and unprocessed food was +0.6% (up from +0.4% in March 2019) and inflation excluding energy was +0.6% (stable compared with the previous month).

The increase on monthly basis of All items index was especially due to prices of Services related to transport (+2.5%), of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+1.5%) and of Non-regulated energy products (+1.4%), only partially offset by the decrease of those of Regulated energy products (-5.9%), of Unprocessed food (-0.9%) and of Services related to communication (-2.2%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was +1.1% (down from +1.3% in March) and that one of prices of Services was +1.2% (up from +0.7% in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods was positive and equal to +0.1 percentage points (-0.6 in March).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food decreased by 0.4% on monthly basis and increased by 0.3% on annual basis (down from +1.1% in the previous month).

In April 2019, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.6% on monthly basis and by 1.2% with respect to April 2018, up from +1.1% in the previous month.