Consumer prices - December 2021

In December 2021 the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.4% on monthly basis and by 3.9% on annual basis (from +3.7% in November), confirming the flash estimate.

In 2021, the average annual rate of change of consumer prices, measured by NIC, was +1.9% (-0.2% in 2020); core inflation, excluding energy and unprocessed food, was +0.8% (from +0.5% in 2020) and inflation excluding energy was +0.8% (from +0.5% and +0.7% in 2020 respectively).

The speed-up of the growth on annual basis of all-item index was mainy due to the prices of processed food including alcohol (from +1.4% in November to +2.0%), of unprocessed food (from +1.5% to +3.6%), of durable goods (from +0.4% to +0.8%) and of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +1.9% to +2.3%). Prices of energy products confirmed their wide growth but slowing down (from +30.7% to +29.1%) for the non-regulated ones (from +24.3% to +22.0%) whereas the growth of those of regulated energy products was huge and substantially stable (from +41.8% to +41.9%).

Core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) was +1.5% and inflation excluding energy was +1.6% (from +1.3% in the previous month for both).

The increase on monthly basis was mainly due on the one hand to prices of Unprocessed food (+1.1%) and of durable goods (+0.6%), on the other hand to the growth, affected by seasonal factors, of prices of services related to transport (+1.9%) and of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+0.8%).

Prices of grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.6% on monthly basis and by +2.4% on annual basis (doubling the growth from +1.2% in the previous month).

In December 2021, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.5% on monthly basis and by 4.2% on annual basis (from +3.9% in November), confirming the flash estimate. In 2021 the average annual rate of change of HICP was +1.9% (it was -0.1% in 2020).

On average, in 2021, inflation measured by HICP had an impact on the households with less purchasing power (reversing the trend from -0.4% in 2020 to +2.4%,) wider than the impact on the households with greater purchasing power for which, anyway, inflation sped up (from +0.1% to 1.6%).

Note:
The attached full text was replaced at 16.54 on the 18 March 2022 as the average annual rate by type of product NIC (tables 3) have been changed.