Consumer prices (provisional data)

According to preliminary estimates, in May 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 May 2018, down from +1.1% in the previous month.

The slowdown of the growth on annual basis of All items index was mainly due to prices of Services related to transport (from +2.8% to +1.6%), of Non-regulated energy products (from +3.7% to +2.4%) and, to a lesser extent, of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +1.6% to +1.1%).

The core inflation excluding energy and unprocessed food was +0.5% (down from +0.6% in April 2019) and inflation excluding energy was +0.6% (down from +0.7%).

The increase on monthly basis of All items index was especially due to prices Unprocessed food (+1.8%) and of Non-regulated energy products (+0.8%), only partially offset by the decrease of those of Services related to transport (-0.9%) and of Services related to communication (-0.5%).

The annual rate of change of prices of Goods was +0.9% (stable compared with the previous month) and that one of prices of Services was +0.9% (down from +1.3% in April 2019). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between Services and Goods was equal to zero percentage points (+0.4 in April).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food increased by 0.8% on monthly basis and by 0.5% on annual basis (up from +0.3% in the previous month).

In May 2019, according to preliminary estimates, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.1% on monthly basis and by 0.9% with respect to May 2018, down from +1.1% in the previous month.