Consumer prices - November 2023

In November 2023 the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was -0.5% on monthly basis and +0.7% on annual basis (from +1.7% in October); the flash estimate was +0.8%.

The slow down of the annual inflation rate was due to the prices of Non-regulated energy products (from -17.7% to -22.5%), of regulated energy products (from -31.7% to -34.9%) and, to a lesser extent, of processed food including alcohol (from +7.3% to +5.8%), of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +5.5% to +4.6%) and of services related to transport (from +4.0% to +3.5%). At the opposite, an upward contribution came from the prices of unprocessed food (from +4.9% to +5.6%).

The core inflation (all-items excluding energy and unprocessed food) and the All-items index excluding energy were both +3.6% (from +4.2% in the previous month).

As for goods, the year on year growth rate was -1.4% (down from zero in October) while for services the annual rate of change was +3.7 (down from +4.1%). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between services and goods increased in absolute value (from +4.1 percentage points in October to +5.1).

Prices of grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.3% on monthly basis and by 5.4% on annual basis (down from +6.1% in the previous month).

The month on month decrease of NIC was mainly due to the prices of non-regulated energy products (-3.8%), of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (-1.3%), of Services related to transport and of regulated energy products (-0.7% both). At the same time, the prices of unprocessed food (+0.8%) have increased.

In November 2023 the Italian harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) decreased by 0.6% on monthly basis and increased by 0.6% on annual basis (down from +1.8% in the previous month); the flash estimate was +0.7%.