Consumer prices (provisional data) - December 2021

According to preliminary estimates, in December 2021 the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.4% on monthly basis and by 3.9% with respect to December 2020 (from +3.7% in the previous month).

In 2021, the average annual rate of change of consumer prices, measured by NIC, was +1.9% (-0.2% in 2020); core inflation, excluding energy and unprocessed food, was +0.8% (from +0.5% in 2020) and inflation excluding energy was +0.7% (the same as in 2020).

The speed-up of the growth on annual basis of all-item index was mainly due to the prices of processed food including alcohol (from +1.4% in November to +2.0%), of unprocessed food (from +1.5% to +3.6%), of durable goods (from+0.4% to +0.8%) and of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +1.9% to +2.3%); prices of regulated energy products confirmed their huge growth (from +41.8% to +41.9%), quite the opposite, those of non-regulated energy products slowed down (from +24.3% to +22.0%).

Core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) was +1.5% and inflation excluding energy was +1.6% (from +1.3% in the previous month for both).

The increase on monthly basis was mainly due on the one hand to prices of Unprocessed food (+1.1%) and of durable goods (+0.6%), on the other hand to the growth, affected by seasonal factors, of prices of services related to transport (+1.9%) and of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+0.8%).

Prices of grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.6% on monthly basis and by +2.4% on annual basis (up from +1.2% in the previous month).

In December 2021, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.5% compared with the previous month and by 4.2% on annual basis (from +3.9% in November). In 2021 the average annual rate of change of HICP was +1.9% (was -0.1% in 2020).

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