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Press release

Consumer prices - August 2021

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In August 2021 the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was +0.4% on monthly basis and +2.0% on annual basis (from +1.9% in July); the flash estimate was +2.1%.

The speed-up of the growth on annual basis of All-item index was mainly due to the prices of Non-regulated energy products (from +11.2% in July to +12.8%) with the prices of Regulated ones that still strongly grew (further up from +34.2% to +34.4%). Moreover, also prices of Unprocessed food reversed the trend (from -0.2% to +0.8%), whereas prices of Services related to transport enlarged slightly their decrease (from -0.2% to -0.4%).

Core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) was +0.6% (the same as in the previous month) and inflation excluding energy was +0.5% (up from +0.4% in July).

The increase on monthly basis was due on the one hand to seasonal factors that affected prices of Services related to transport (+2.8%) and of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+0.7%), and on the other hand to prices of Non-regulated energy products (+1.7%) and of Unprocessed food (+0.4%).

The rate of change of Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food was +0.4% on monthly basis and +0.6% on annual basis (from zero variation in the previous month).

In August 2021 the rate of change of the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) was +0.2% on monthly basis and +2.5% on annual basis (from +1.0% in July). The speed-up of the growth of HICP (wider than NIC) was due to the summer sales (not considered by NIC), which caused a decrease on monthly basis of prices of Clothing and footwear (-5.3%) smaller than that of August 2020 (-18.6%) for the delayed start in 2020 (August, 1) of summer sales in almost all the Italian regions. This difference reflects on the rate of change on annual basis of prices of Clothing and footwear (from -12.1% in July to +2.4%) and on that of the all item index.

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

Reference period: August 2021

Date of Issue: 15 September 2021

Next release: 30 September 2021

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