Consumer prices - January 2022

In January 2022 the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was +1.6% on monthly basis and +4.8% on annual basis (from +3.9% in December) confirming the flash estimate.

The speed-up of the growth on annual basis of All-item index was mainly due to the prices of Energy (from +29.1% in December to +38.6%), especially of those of Regulated energy products (from +41.9% to +94.6%). Moreover, even if to a lesser extent, also prices of Non-regulated energy products (from +22.0% to +22.9%), of Unprocessed food (from +3.6% to +5.3%) and of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +2.3% to +3.6%) contributed to the speed-up. Quite the opposite, the prices of Services related to transport slowed down (from +3.6% to +1.5%).

Core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) was +1.5% (the same as in the previous month) and inflation excluding energy was +1.8% (up from +1.6% in December).

The increase on monthly basis was mainly due to prices of Regulated energy products (+43.8%) and, to a lesser extent, to those of Non-regulated energy products (+3.0%), of Unprocessed food (+2.0%), of Processed food including alcohol (+1.3%), of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+1.1%) and of Durable goods (+0.8%). Only prices of Services related to transport recorded a decrease (-1.6%), mainly due to seasonal factors.

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was +7.0% (from +5.5% in December) and that of prices of Services was +1.8% (from +1.7% in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods was still negative and equal to -5.2 percentage points (from -3.8 in December).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food increased by 1.4% on monthly basis and by 3.2% on annual basis (up from +2.4% in the previous month).

In January 2022 the rate of change of the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) was zero on monthly basis and +5.1% on annual basis (from +4.2% in December); the flash estimate was +5.3%. The different dynamics on monthly basis between HICP and NIC was due to the winter sales that are not considered by NIC (prices of Clothing and footwear decreased by 21.5% with respect to December).