Consumer prices (provisional)

In March 2014, according to provisional estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) rose by 0.1% compared with the previous month and by 0.4% with respect to March 2013 (0.1 lower than in February 2014).

The slowdown of inflation was mainly due to the decreases of prices of Non-regulated energy products and of Unprocessed food and to the reduction of inflationary trends for most of the others aggregates of goods and services.

Excluding unprocessed food and energy, core inflation was 0.9% (0.1 lower than in February 2014); excluding only energy, the inflation was 0.8%, down from 1.0% in February 2014.

The increase on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to the increase ‒ on which also seasonal factors had an impact ‒ of prices of Services related to transport (+0.6%) and Services related to recreation, including repairs and personal care (+0.3%); the monthly rise of prices of Services related to housing (+0.3%) had an upward impact, too.

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods fell to -0.4% (from -0.1% in February 2014) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was +1.0% (down from +1.2% in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods increased by 0.1 percentage points with respect to February 2014.

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food declined by 0.3% on monthly basis and rose by 0.7% on annual basis (down from +1.0% in February 2014).

In March 2014, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) rose by 2.1% compared with the previous month and by 0.3% with respect to March 2013 (0.1 lower than in February 2014). The increase on monthly basis was mainly due to the end of winter sales of Clothing and footwear (+29.1% compared with February 2014), which are not taken into account in the national index NIC.

Core inflation measured by Italian HICP was 0.9%, down from 1.0% in February 2014; excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, the inflation was 0.8% from 0.9% registered in the previous month. Italian HICP, excluding energy, increased by 0.7% with respect to March 2013 (0.2 lower than in February 2014).