Consumer prices (provisional data)

According to preliminary estimates, in January 2020 the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.2% on monthly basis and by 0.6% with respect to January 2019 (up from +0.5% in the previous month).

The slight acceleration of the growth on annual basis of All items index was mainly due to the speed-up of prices of Non-regulated energy products (from +1.6% to +3.2%), of Services related to transport (from +1.1% to +2.9%) and of Processed food including alcohol (from +0.4% to +1.0%), partially offset by the widening of the decrease of prices of Regulated energy products (from -7.8% to -9.5%) and by the slowdown of prices of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +1.3% to +0.8%).

Both core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) and inflation excluding energy were +0.8% (respectively from +0.6% and +0.7%).

The growth on monthly basis was mainly due to the increase of prices of Processed food including alcohol (+1.4%) and of Unprocessed food (+0.9%), partially offset by the decrease of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (-0.6%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was +0.1% (from zero) and that one of prices of Services was +1.0% (the same as in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods was still positive and equal +0.9 percentage points (+1.0 in December).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food increased by 1.2% on monthly basis and +0.9% on annual basis (up from +0.6% in the previous month).

In January 2020, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) decreased by 1.7% on monthly basis, mainly due to the winter sales of Clothing and footwear (-22.4% compared with December 2019), which are not taken into account in the national index NIC. The HICP increased by +0.5% with respect to January 2019 (the same as in the previous month).