Italian consumer price index rose in line with forecasts in June.

According to the report from the Istat, in June 2021 the rate of change of Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (Nic) was +0.1% on monthly basis and +1.3% on annual basis (the same as the previous month), confirming the flash estimate.

The stable growth on annual basis of all-item index was still mainly due to the prices of both regulated energy products (that slightly sped up from +16.8% to +16.9%) and non-regulated ones (from 12.6% to 12.8%). Moreover, prices of processed food, including alcohol, reduced their decrease (from -1.1% to -0.4%) and those of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care went from null to +1.0%: these dynamics were offset by prices of unprocessed food (from -0.4% to -1.1%) and of services related to transport (from -0.2% to -1.4%).

Both core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) and inflation excluding energy were +0.3% (up from +0.2% in the previous month).

In June 2021 the rate of change of the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (Hicp) was +0.2% on monthly basis and +1.3% on annual basis (from +1.2% in May), confirming the flash estimate.

In the second quarter of 2021, inflation measured by Hicp was equal to +1.5% for the households with less purchasing power and was equal to +0.9% for those with greater spending power. As a consequence, the inflationary gap between the two groups was equal to +0.6 percentage points.