Consumer prices (provisional)

In May 2016, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.3 on monthly basis and declined by 0.3% with respect to May 2015, up from -0.5% in April 2016.

The lower decline on annual basis of the All items index is mainly due to the reversal trend of prices of Tobacco (+2.0%, from -0.3% in the previous month) and of Unprocessed food (+0.3%, from -0.5% in April 2016).

Excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +0.6% (up from +0.5 registered in April 2016) and, excluding energy, the inflation was +0.5% (0.1 percentage points higher than that of the previous month).

The increase on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to the rise of prices of Tobacco (+2.4%), of Non-regulated energy products (+1.7%) and of Unprocessed food (+1.0%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was -1.0% (up from -1.1% in April 2016) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was +0.4% (the same rate observed in the previous month). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods decreased by 0.1 percentage points with respect to April 2016.

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

In May 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 May 2015 (up from -0.4% registered in April 2016).

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