Consumer prices (provisional data) - May 2023

According to preliminary estimates, in May 2023 the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was +0.3% on monthly basis and +7.6% on annual basis (down from +8.2% in April).

The slow down of the annual inflation rate was mainly due to the prices of Non-regulated energy products (from +26.6% to +20.5%) and, to a lesser extent, of Processed food including alcohol (from +14.0% to +13.4%), of Services related to transport (from +6.0% to +5.5%) and of Non energy industrial goods (from +5.3% to +5.1%). At the opposite, an upward contribution to the inflation rate came from the prices of Unprocessed food (form +8.4% to +8.9%) and of Services related to housing (from +3.2% to +3.4%).

The core inflation (All-items excluding energy and unprocessed food) was +6.1% (down from +6.2% in April) and the All-items index excluding energy was +6.2% (from +6.3% in the previous month).

As for Goods, the year on year growth rate was +9.5% (down from +10.4% in April) while for Services the annual rate of change was +4.6% (from +4.8% in the previous month). As a consequence, the negative inflationary gap between Services and Goods decreases in absolute value (from -5.6 percentage points in April to -4.9).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food increased by +0.9% on monthly basis and by 11.3% on annual basis (down from +11.6% in the previous month).

The month on month increase of NIC was mainly due to the prices of Unprocessed food (+1.5%), of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+1.1%), of Processed food including alcohol (+0.7%) and of Services related to housing (+0,3%). At the same time, the prices of Non-regulated energy products showed a decrease (-1.4%).

In May 2023, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.3% on monthly basis and by 8.1% on annual basis (from +8.7% in the previous month).