Consumer prices - September 2024

In September 2024 the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was -0.2% on monthly basis and +0.7% on annual basis (from +1.1% in August 2024), confirming the flash estimate.

The slow down of the annual inflation rate was mainly due to the prices of Regulated energy products (from +14.3% to +10.4%), of Non-regulated energy products (from -8.6% to -11.0%), of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +4.5% to +4.0%) and of Services related to transport (from +2.9% to +2.4%). At the opposite, an upward contribution to the inflation rate came from the prices of Unprocessed food (from -0.5% to +0.3%) have accelerate.

In September 2024, core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) was +1.8% (from +1.9% in the previous month) and inflation excluding energy was +1.7% (from +1.8%).

As for Goods, the year on year growth rate was -0.9% (from -0.5% in August) and for Services the annual rate of change was +2.8% (from +3.2%). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods remain stable (at +3.7 percentage points).

The prices of Grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.2 on monthly basis and by 1.0% on annual basis (up from +0.6% in the previous month).

The month on month decrease of NIC was mainly due to the prices of of Services related to transport (-2.2%), of Regulated energy products and of Non-regulated energy products (-1.1% both) and of Processed food including alcohol (-0.5%); on the other hand the prices of Unprocessed foods (+1.4%), of Durable goods (+0.4%) and Semi-durable goods (+0.3) have increased.

In September 2024 the Italian harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 1.2% on monthly basis, also due to the end of the summer sales of Clothing and footwear (not considered by NIC), and by 0.7% on annual basis (from +1.2% in the previous month); the flash estimate was +0.8%.

In the third quarter of 2024, inflation measured by HICP had a wider impact on the sub-population with the lowest level of equivalent expenditure than on households with highest amount of expenditure (+0.4% and +1.6% respectively).