Consumer prices (provisional data)

According to preliminary estimates, in November 2020 the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was -0.1% on monthly basis and -0.2% on annual basis (from -0.3% in October).

The decrease on annual basis for the seventh consecutive month of all items index was still mainly due to the wide decreases of prices of energy products (-8.6%, from +8.7% ), whereas its lower extent was determined by the speed-up of prices of processed food including alcohol (from zero variation to +0.7%), and of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +0.1% to +0.5%).

Core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) was +0.5% (up from +0.2% in the previous month) and inflation excluding energy was +0.6% (up from +0.5%).

The decrease on monthly basis was mainly due to the of prices of services related to transport and of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (-1.0% for both), only partially offset by the increase of those of processed food including alcohol (+0.9%) and of unprocessed food (+0.7%).

Prices of grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.9% on monthly basis and by +1.5% on annual basis (up from +1.2% in the previous month).

In November the rate of change of the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) was zero with respect to the previous month and -0.3% on annual basis (from -0.6% in October). This halving of the decrease is mostly due to the dynamics of the prices of same types of products that explain the lesser extent of the decrease of NIC index, but with an amplification of their effects due to the greater weight with which these components contribute for the HICP to the rate of change of the general index.

On pages 11-13 the methodological note describes the choices adopted in November and in the previous months to deal with the ongoing issues deriving from Covid-19 crisis.