Consumer prices (provisional)

In April 2016, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) held steady on monthly basis and declined by 0.4% with respect to April 2015, down from -0.2% in March 2016.

The larger decline on annual basis of the All items index is mainly due to the widening of the annual decrease of prices of Regulated energy products (-4.7%, from -2.7% in the previous month), to which contribute both the Natural gas (-6.7%, from -5.7% in March) and the Electric energy that registered a reversal trend (-1.9%, from +1.5% in the previous month).

Therefore, excluding energy, the inflation, even if slowing, is still positive (+0.3%, from +0.4% in March); Excluding Energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +0.5% (down from +0.6 registered in the previous month).

The stability on monthly basis of the All items index was the result on one side of the decline of prices of Regulated energy products (-4.3%) and on the other side of the monthly increases of prices of Non-regulated energy products (+1.4%), of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+0.7%) and of Services related to Transport (+0.4%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was -1.0% (the same rate observed in March 2016) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was +0.4% (down from +0.7% in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods decreased by 0.3 percentage points with respect to March 2016.

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.1% on monthly basis and decreased by 0.2% on annual basis (from -0.3% in the previous month).

In April 2016, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.3 compared with the previous month and decreased by 0.3% with respect to April 2015 (down from -0.2% registered in March 2016). The monthly increase was also due to the final end of the winter sales of Clothing and footwear (+2.9% with respect to March 2016), which are not taken into account in the national index NIC.

Core inflation measured by Italian HICP was +0.5%, down from +0.6% in March 2016; excluding Energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, the inflation was +0.6% (down from +0.8% in the previous month). Excluding energy, the inflation was +0.5% (the same rate registered in the previous month).