Consumer prices

The Consumer Price Index measures the change in prices over time of a set of goods and services (CPI basket) representative of Italian household consumption.

In September 2012:

• the National Consumer Price Index for the whole nation CPI (see Italian NIC) – used to measure inflation over the entire Italian economic system – held steady compared to the previous month and rose by 3.2% in comparison to the same month of the previous year;

• the EU Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices HICP (see Italian IPCA) – developed to facilitate the comparison of inflation between Member States – rose by 2.1% compared to the previous month and by 3.4% in comparison to the same month of the previous year;

• the EU Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices at Constant Tax rates HICP-CT (see Italian IPCA-TC) rose by 2.1% compared to the previous month and by 2.5% in comparison to the same month of the previous year.