Italy: CPI change rate for whole nation at 9.1% annually in Feb 2023

Rome: In February 2023, the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index (CPI) for the whole nation (NIC) was 0.2 per cent on a monthly basis and 9.1 per cent on an annual basis from 10.0 per cent in January; the flash estimate was 9.2 per cent. The slowdown of the annual inflation rate was mainly due to the prices of regulated energy products, from -12.0 per cent to -16.4 per cent, and of non-regulated energy products, from 59.3 per cent to 40.8 per cent.

In February, the core inflation (All-items excluding energy and other items) was 6.3 per cent, up from 6.0 per cent in January, while the annual rate of change of the All-items index excluding energy was 6.4 per cent, up from 6.2 per cent in the previous month, according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat).

The annual rate of change of prices of goods was 12.4 per cent, from 14.1 per cent in January. The negative inflationary gap between services and goods decreased—from -9.9 percentage points in January to -8.0.

The month-on-month increase of NIC at 0.2 per cent was mainly due to the prices of various items including durable goods at 0.7 per cent and non-durable goods at 0.6 per cent. At the opposite, the prices of regulated energy products (-4.9 per cent) and non-regulated energy products slowed down by 4.9 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively.

In February 2023, the Italian harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) increased by 0.1 per cent on a monthly basis and by 9.8 per cent on an annual basis, from 10.7 per cent in January. The flash estimate was 9.9 per cent.