Italy's core inflation rises to 5% in Sept 2022: Istat

The rate of change of the Italian consumer price index (CPI) for the whole nation (NIC) last month was +0.3 per cent on monthly basis and +8.9 per cent on annual basis (from +8.4 per cent in August), the same as the flash estimate.

In September 2022 the Italian harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 1.6 per cent on monthly basis, also due to the end of the summer sales of clothing and footwear (not considered by NIC), and by 9.4 per cent on annual basis (from +9.1 per cent in the previous month); the flash estimate was +9.5 per cent.

In the third quarter of 2022, inflation measured by HICP had an impact on households with lower purchasing power (+11.6 per cent) larger than on those with greater spending power (+7.6 per cent).

The speed-up of the growth on annual basis of all-item index was due to the prices of non-durable goods (from +3.8 per cent to +4.6 per cent) and of semi-durable goods (from +2.3 per cent to +2.8 per cent), among other products. Quite the opposite, the prices of regulated (from +47.9 per cent to +47.7 per cent) and of non-regulated energy products (from +41.6 per cent to +41.2 per cent) and of services related to transport (from +8.4 per cent to +7.2 per cent) slowed down.

The annual rate of change of prices of goods was +12.5 per cent (from +11.8 per cent in the previous month) and that of prices of services was +3.9 per cent (from +3.8 per cent). As a consequence, the inflationary gap between services and goods was still negative and equal to -8.6 percentage points (-8.0 percentage points in August), said Istat.

The increase on monthly basis of NIC was mainly due to the prices of semi-durable goods (+1.0 per cent) and durable goods (+0.7 per cent); prices of services related to transport decreased (-4.2 per cent), mostly due to seasonal factors.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (NB)