Italian headline consumer price index rises in July

Italian consumer price index rises in July on a sequential basis and on a year-on-year basis. According to Istat, the consumer price index rose 0.3 percent sequentially, while it accelerated to 1.5 percent year-on-year from 1.3 percent seen in the prior month, affirming the flash estimate.

The rise on an annual basis of All items index was mainly because of prices of Regulated energy products. The deceleration of prices of Services related to transport eased this acceleration. This, inflation excluding energy and unprocessed food came in at 0.7 percent and inflation excluding energy came in at 0.9 percent.

The rise on month basis of All items index was driven by the rises of prices of “Regulated energy products (+6.1%) and, to a lesser extent, of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (+0.8%) only partially offset by the decrease of prices of Unprocessed food (-1.8%)”, stated Istat.

Meanwhile, the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices dropped 1.4 percent sequentially and rose 1.9 percent year-on-year. The fall on monthly basis was mainly because of the beginning of the summer sales of Clothing and footwear, which are not taken into account in the national index NIC.

The core inflation, which excludes energy and unprocessed food, measured by Italian HICP, came in at 1.1 percent in July. This is an acceleration from 0.8 percent in the previous month. Inflation excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco and energy accelerated.

The Italian harmonised index of consumer prices at constant tax dropped 1.4 percent in July on a sequential basis, while it rose 1.9 percent year-on-year. Thus, the difference between HICP and HICP-CT growth rates, which incorporates the effects of changes in indirect taxes occurred in the last 12 months, was null.

At 15:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Euro was highly bearish at -133.988, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was neutral at 35.3141. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex