According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat), the monthly rate of change for the Italian consumer price index for the entire nation (NIC) was minus 0.4% in March 2023, indicating that Italy’s inflation rate was beginning to drop down. In contrast, the annual rate of change decreased to 7.6% from 9.1% in February. 7.7% was the flash estimate for March.
The decline in the cost of non-regulated energy products, which saw a decrease in inflation from 40.8% to 18.9%, was a significant element in the slowdown of inflation. While this was happening, the cost of regulated energy products fell by an even higher amount, from minus 16.4% to minus 20.3%.
Energy and unprocessed goods are not included in core inflation. food, was constant at 6.3% in March 2023. Istat reports that the annual rate of change for all items except energy was 6.4%, remaining constant from the previous month.
In contrast to February’s 12.4%, the annual rate of change for prices of goods was 9.7%. Non-regulated energy products (down 9.6%%) and regulated energy products (down 4.6%), on a monthly basis, were the causes of the drop in NIC. Non-durable products (+0.5%) and semi-durable goods (+0.5%), nevertheless, had a positive impact.
Due mostly to the end of winter apparel and footwear sales (which were not taken into account by the HICP), the harmonised index of consumer prices in Italy (HICP) climbed by 0.8% on a monthly basis in March. NIC). As a result, the Italian HICP’s annual rate of change decreased from 9.8% in February to 8.1%. 8.2% was the flash estimate for March.
With increases of 12.5% and 8.2%, respectively, in the first quarter of 2023, HICP inflation had a greater effect on the subpopulation with the lowest level of comparable expenditure than on those with the highest amount of expenditure.
