Italian consumer price index rose by 1% in February

According to the report from Istat, in February 2019 the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.1% on monthly basis and by 1.0% with respect to February 2018, up from +0.9% in the previous month. The flash estimate was +1.1%.

The slight acceleration of the growth on annual basis of All items index was mainly due to prices of Unprocessed food (from +1.7% to +3.7%) and Tobacco (from +2.9% to +4.5%), and, to a lesser extent, of Processed food including alcohol (from zero variation to +0.5%) and of Non-regulated energy products (from +0.3% to +0.8%). The slowdown of prices of Services related to transport (from +2.2% to +0.9%) and the wider decrease of prices of Services related to communication (from -2.0% to -4.8%) mitigated the effect of these accelerations.

The core inflation excluding energy and unprocessed food was +0.4% (down from +0.5% in the previous month) and inflation excluding energy was +0.7% (in acceleration from +0.6%).

In February 2019, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) decreased by 0.3% compared with the previous month. The HICP increased by +1.1%, with respect to February 2018 (it was +0.9% in the previous month). The flash estimate was +1.2%.