Consumer prices

In June 2021 the rate of change of Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (Nic) was +0.1% on monthly basis and +1.3% on annual basis (the same as the previous month), confirming the flash estimate.

The stable growth on annual basis of all-item index was still mainly due to the prices of both regulated energy products (that slightly sped up from +16.8% to +16.9%) and non-regulated ones (from 12.6% to 12.8%). Moreover, prices of processed food, including alcohol, reduced their decrease (from -1.1% to -0.4%) and those of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care went from null to +1.0%: these dynamics were offset by prices of unprocessed food (from -0.4% to -1.1%) and of services related to transport (from -0.2% to -1.4%).

Both core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) and inflation excluding energy were +0.3% (up from +0.2% in the previous month).

The increase on monthly basis was mainly due to the prices of services related to transport (+0.9%), of non-regulated energy products and of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+0.7% for both), whose growth was only partially offset by the decrease of prices of unprocessed food (-1.3%) and of services related to communication (-0.5%).

The rate of change of prices of grocery and unprocessed food was -0.3% on monthly basis and -0.7% on annual basis (from -0.9% in the previous month).

In June 2021 the rate of change of the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (Hicp) was +0.2% on monthly basis and +1.3% on annual basis (from +1.2% in May), confirming the flash estimate.

In the second quarter of 2021, inflation measured by Hicp was equal to +1.5% for the households with less purchasing power and was equal to +0.9% for those with greater spending power. As a consequence, the inflationary gap between the two groups was equal to +0.6 percentage points.

On pages 14-15 the methodological note describes the choices adopted to deal with the ongoing issues deriving from Covid-19 crisis.