Consumer price (provisional indices)

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.

Istat estimates that in January 2011:

• the National Consumer Price Index for the whole nation CPI (see Italian NIC) – used to measure inflation over the entire Italian economic system – rose by 0.4 compared to the previous month and by 2.1% 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 – declined by 1.2% compared to the previous month and rose by 2.4% in comparison to the same month of the previous year.

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According to the SDDS programme of the IMF, Istat disseminates an annual calendar of press releases both on Istat and SDDS website.