Consumer prices - September 2023

In September 2023 the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was +0.2% on monthly basis and +5.3% on annual basis (from +5.4% in August) confirming the flash estimate.

The slowdown of the annual inflation rate was due to the prices of Unprocessed food (from +9.2% to +7.7%), of Processed food including alcohol (from +10.0% to +8.9%), of Durable goods (from +4.6% to +4.0%) and, to a lesser extent, of Non-durable goods (from +5.2% to +4.7%), of Semi-durable goods (from +2.9% to +2.4%) and of Services related to housing (from +3.9% to +3.7%). Quite the opposite, the prices of Non-regulated energy products (from +5.7% to +7.6%), those of Regulated energy products (from -29.6% to -27.9%) and of Services related to transport (from +1.2% to +3.8%) speed up.

The core inflation (All-items excluding energy and unprocessed food) was +4.6% (down from +4.8% in August) and the All-items index excluding energy was +4.8% (from +5.0% in the previous month).

As for Goods, the year on year growth rate was +6.0% (down from +6.3% in August) while for Services the annual rate of change was +4.1% (up from +3.6%). As a consequence, the negative inflationary gap between Services and Goods decreases in absolute value (from -2.7 percentage points in August to -1.9).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food decreased by 0.2% on monthly basis and increasead by 8.1% on annual basis (down from +9.4% in the previous month).

The month on month increase of NIC was mainly due to the prices of Regulated energy products (+2.4%), of Non-regulated energy products (+1.6%), of Unprocessed food (+0.6%), of Semi-durable goods and Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+0.5% both) and of Services miscellaneous (+0.3%). At the same time, the prices of Services related to transport (-1.7%) have decreased.

In September 2023 the Italian harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 1.7% on monthly basis, also due to the end of the summer sales of Clothing and footwear (not considered by NIC), and by 5.6% on annual basis (up from +5.5% in the previous month); the flash estimate was +5.7%.

In the third quarter of 2023, inflation measured by HICP had a wider impact on the sub-population with the lowest level of equivalent expenditure than on households with highest amount of expenditure (+6.7 and +5.6% respectively).