Consumer prices (provisional)

In April 2017, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.3% on monthly basis and by 1.8% compared with April 2016, up from +1.4% in March 2017.

In April, the speed up of the annual rate of change of All items index was mainly due to prices of Regulated energy products (+5.7%, from -1.2% in the previous month), to which contributed both Electric energy (+5.4%, from -1.0% in March) and Natural gas (+6.0%, from -1.4%), and also to prices of Services related to transport (+5.5%, up from +2.5% in the previous month).

Excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +1.0%, up from +0.7% in March; excluding energy the inflation was +1.2%, stable as in the previous month.

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was +1.8% (up from +1.7% in March) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was +1.7% (up from +1.0% in the previous month). As a
consequence, the negative inflationary gap between Services and Goods resized with respect to March (-0.1 percentage points from -0.7).

The increase on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to the prices of both Services related to transport (+3.3%) and Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+1.1%), which increased especially for Easter on April 16 and Liberation Day, a national holiday in Italy that is annually celebrated on April 25.

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food decreased by 0.4% on monthly basis and increased by 1.8% on annual basis (from +2.3% in the previous month).

In April 2017, according to preliminary estimates, the rate of change of Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.8% compared with the previous month and by 2.0% with respect to April 2016 (the annual rate of change observed in the previous month was +1.4%).

The increase on monthly basis was mainly due to the final end of the winter sales
of Clothing and footwear (+4.2% compared with March 2017), which are not taken into account in the national index NIC.

In April, core inflation, measured by Italian HICP, was +1.2% (up from 0.7% in March). Both inflation excluding Energy, food, alcohol and tobacco and inflation excluding Energy increased: the first was +1.3% (from +0.6% in March), the second was +1.4% (0.3 percentage points higher than in the previous month).