Consumer prices

In March 2021 the rate of change of Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was +0.3% on monthly basis and +0.8% on annual basis (from +0.6% in February), confirming the flash estimate.

The slight speed up of all-item index was mainly due to the trend reversal of prices of Non-regulated energy products (from -3.6% to +1.7%) and, to a lesser extent, to prices of services related to transport (from +1.0% to +2.2%).

Both core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) and inflation excluding energy were +0.8% (down from +0.9% in the previous month).

The increase on monthly basis was mainly due to the prices of non-regulated energy products (+3.2%) and of services related to transport (+1.3%).

Prices of grocery and unprocessed food recorded a zero variation on monthly basis and a trend reversal on annual basis (-0.1% from +0.2% in the previous month).

In March 2021 the rate of change of the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) was +1.8% on monthly basis, mainly due to the end of the winter sales of clothing and footwear (not considered by NIC), and +0.6% on annual basis (from +1.0% in February).

The extension, in some cases, of the winter sales (also due to their temporally diversified start between the regions) meant that the prices of clothing and footwear increased by 23.0% on monthly basis, less than in March 2020 when the growth was equal to +31.1%. The difference between the two rates of change affected the dynamics on annual basis of prices of clothing and footwear, which reversed the trend from +5.8% to -0.7%, and of the all-item index of HICP, which slowed down and recorded an increase lower than NIC.

On pages 12-13 the methodological note describes the choices adopted in March and in the prevous months to deal with the ongoing issues deriving from Covid-19 crisis.