Consumer prices (provisional data)

According to preliminary estimates, in October 2019 the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was stable on monthly basis and increased by 0.3% with respect to October 2018 (the same as in the previous month).

The stability of the growth on annual basis of All items index was due to opposite dynamics and in particular, on one hand to the decrease of prices of Regulated energy products (from -5.3% to -8.2%) and on the other hand, to the speed-up of prices of Services related to transport (from + 0.4% to +1.9%).

The core inflation excluding energy and unprocessed food and inflation excluding energy were +0.8% (up from +0.6% for both).

The increase on monthly basis of prices of Regulated energy products (+2.7%) and of Non-regulated energy products (+0.9%) was offset by the decrease, mainly due to seasonal factors, of prices of Services related to transport (-0.7%) and of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (-0.8%), determining the zero variation of All items index.

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was -0.4% (from -0.2%) and that one of prices of Services was +1.1% (up from +0.9% in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods was still positive and wider (+1.5 percentage points; +1.1 in September).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.3% on monthly basis and by 0.8% on annual basis (up from +0.4% in the previous month).

In October 2019, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.2% compared with the previous month and with respect to October 2018 (the same as in the previous month).