Consumer prices

In February 2021 the rate of change of Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was +0.1% on monthly basis and +0.6% on annual basis (from +0.4% in January), confirming the flash estimate.

The slight speed up of All items index was mainly due to the less amplitude of the decrease of prices of Non-regulated energy products (from -6.3% to -3.6%) and to the trend reversal of prices of Services related to transport (from -0.1% to +1.0%); these dynamics were partially offset by the decrease of prices of Food including alcohol (from +0.6% to +0.2%).

Core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) and inflation excluding energy slightly sped up to +0.9% for both (from +0.8% in the previous month).

The increase on monthly basis was mainly due to the prices of Non-regulated energy products (+1.4%), of Tobacco and of Services related to transport (+0.4% for both), only partially offset by the decrease of prices of Food including alcohol (-0.3%).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food decreased by -0.2% on monthly basis and increased by +0.2% on annual basis (down from +0.4% in the previous month).

In February 2021 the rate of change of the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) was -0.2% with respect to the previous month and +1.0% on annual basis (from +0.7% in January), confirming the flash estimate. The different dynamics on monthly basis between HICP and NIC was due to the winter sales (not considered by NIC), which caused a decrease of prices of Clothing and footwear (-4.8%), whose less width with respect to that of February 2020 (-5.2%) reflects on the rates of change on annual basis of this expenditure division (from +5.2% in January to +5.8%) and of the all item index (higher than that of NIC).

On pages 12-13 the methodological note describes the choices adopted in February and in the previous months to deal with the ongoing issues deriving from Covid-19 crisis.