Consumer prices

In September 2014, the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) declined by 0.4% compared with the previous month and by 0.2% with respect to September 2013 (the flash estimate was -0.1%).

The larger decline on annual basis of the All items index (it was -0.1 in August 2014) is mainly due to the widening of the annual decrease of prices of Non-regulated energy products (-2.8%, from -1.2% in August 2014) and to the slowdown in the annual growth rate of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (-0.3%, from +0.7% in August 2014), which widened with the release of the final data; these trends were only partly offset by the reduction of the decline of the annual rate of change of prices of Unprocessed food (-0.9%, from -1.8% in the previous month).

Excluding unprocessed food and energy, core inflation was 0.4%, down from 0.5% in August 2014; excluding energy, the inflation was 0.3% (0.1 lower than in August 2014).

The decrease on monthly basis of All items index was mainly due to the decline of prices of Services related to transport (-4.8%) – on which seasonal factors had an impact – and, to a lesser extent, to the reduction of prices of Non-regulated energy products (-0.6%); the decrease of prices of Services related to recreation, including repairs and personal care       (-0.1%) – also the latter mainly due to seasonal factors – had an impact, too.

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was -0.6% (as in the previous month) and the annual rate of change of prices of Services was stable at +0.6%. As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods held steady with respect to August 2014.

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food rose by 0.1% compared with the previous month and held steady on annual basis (from -0.2% observed in August 2014).

In September 2014, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) rose by 1.9% on monthly basis and declined by 0.1% on annual basis (the flash estimate was -0.2%), showing a decrease of 0.1 percentage points in the negative annual rate observed in August 2014 (-0.2%). The increase on monthly basis was mainly due to the end of summer sales of Clothing and footwear (+31.1% compared with August 2014) which are not taken into account in the national index NIC.