Consumer prices (provisional data)

According to preliminary estimates, in March 2021 the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was +0.3% on monthly basis and +0.8% on annual basis (from +0.6%).

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 increased by +0.1% on monthly basis and recorded a zero variation on annual basis (down 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 (attributable also 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 it 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 recorded a growth lower than NIC.

On pages 11-12 the methodological note describes the choices adopted to deal with the ongoing issues deriving from Covid-19 crisis.