Consumer prices - November 2021

In November 2021 the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was +0.6% on monthly basis and +3.7% on annual basis (from +3.0% in October); the flash estimate was +3.8%.

The speed-up of the growth on annual basis of All-item index was mainly due to the prices of Non-regulated energy products (that were up from +15.0% of October to +24.3%), whereas those of Regulated energy products slightly slowed down but confirming a huge increase (from +42.3% to +41.8%). Moreover, also prices of Processed food including alcohol (from +1.0% to +1.4%), of Unprocessed food (from +0.8% to +1.5%) and of Services related to transport (from +2.4% to +3.6%) sped up. Quite the opposite, the prices of Durable goods slowed down (from +0.9% to +0.4%).

Core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) and inflation excluding energy were +1.3% (from +1.1% in the previous month for both).

The increase on monthly basis was mainly due to the prices of Non-regulated energy products (+7.9%) and, to a lesser extent, of Unprocessed food (+1.4%) and of Processed food including alcohol (+0.6%), only partially offset by the decrease of prices of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (-0.7%, largely affected by seasonal factors) and of Durable goods (-0.4%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was +5.1% (from +4.2% in the previous month) and that of prices of Services was +1.7% (from +1.3%). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods was still negative and equal to -3.4 percentage points (from -2.9 in October).

The rate of change of Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food was +0.8% on monthly basis and +1.2% on annual basis (up from +1.0% in the previous month).

In November 2021 the rate of change of the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) was +0.7% on monthly basis and +3.9% on annual basis (from +3.2% in October); the flash estimate was +4.0%.

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