Italy: Consumer price index rose slightly in January

According to preliminary estimates from Istat, in January 2019 the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) increased by 0.1% on monthly basis and by 0.9% with respect to January 2018, down from +1.1% in the previous month.

Core inflation excluding energy and unprocessed food was +0.5% (in deceleration from +0.6%) and inflation excluding energy was +0.6% (stable compared to the previous month).

The increase on monthly basis of All items index was especially due to prices of Unprocessed food (+1.3%), only partially offset by the decrease of Non-regulated energy products (-1.2%) and of Services related to transport (-1.4%), the latter mainly due to seasonal factors.

In January 2019, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) decreased by 1.7% compared with the previous month, mainly due to the winter sales of Clothing and footwear (-21.2% compared with December 2018), which are not taken into account in the national index NIC. The HICP increased by +0.9% with respect to January 2018 (it was +1.2% in December 2018).