Italian consumer price inflation falls sequentially, rises on year-on-year basis

The preliminary estimates indicate that Italian consumer price index dropped 0.1 percent on a monthly basis in June, while it rose 1.2 percent year-on-year, stated Istat. The lower growth of the annual rate of change of all items was mainly because of the prices of unprocessed food and non-regulated energy products. This partially countered the rise in prices of services related to transport.

Stripping energy and unprocessed food, the core inflation rose 0.9 percent in the month, 0.2 percentage points higher than in May. Meanwhile, excluding energy, inflation was 0.9 percent, which is 0.1 percentage points lower than in the previous month.

The annual pace of change of prices of goods came in at 0.9 percent and that one of prices of services was 1.5 percent. Therefore, the inflationary gap between services and goods was positive again.

On a sequential basis, the drop in index was mainly due to the prices of unprocessed food, particularly fresh fruit and fresh vegetables, and non-regulated energy products, whose effects are partly balanced by rise of the prices of services related to transport.

The preliminary estimates showed that the pace of change of Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) dropped 0.2 percent on a sequential basis and rose 1.2 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, core inflation, gauged by HICP, rose 0.9 percent, while inflation stripping energy, food, alcohol and tobacco rose 1 percent. Meanwhile, inflation excluding energy decelerated 0.9 percent from 1.1 percent in the earlier month.

At 22:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was bearish at -85.7006, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Euro was neutral at 18.8832. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

FxWirePro launches Absolute Return Managed Program. For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/invest