Italys consumer price inflation rises year-on-year in December

Italy’s consumer price inflation remained flat on a sequential basis, rising 0.4 percent in December, the same as in November. On a year-on-year basis, the consumer price index rose slightly by 0.5 percent from 0.1 percent recorded in November 2016, according to Istat. The flash estimate was confirmed. The average rate of change of consumer prices in 2016 was negative, whereas excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation rose 0.5 percent, as compared with 0.7 percent recorded in 2015.

The considerable rise of the annual pace of change of all items index was mostly because of the speed-up of the annual growth of prices of services related to transport of non-regulated energy products and of unprocessed food. Excluding unprocessed food and energy, December’s core inflation rose 0.6 percent, a rise from 0.4 percent. Excluding only energy, the inflation was 0.7 percent.

On sequential basis, the rise in all items index was mostly because of the monthly rise of prices in services related to transport, non-regulated energy products, unprocessed food and services related to recreation including personal care and repair.

The annual pace of change of prices of goods was 0.1 percent, and the annual rate of change of prices of services was 0.9 percent. Thus, the inflationary gap between services and goods dropped 0.1 percentage points on a sequential basis.

The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 0.4 percent on a sequential basis and 0.5 percent on year-on-year basis. The average annual inflation rate in 2016, gauged by Italian HICP, came in at -0.1 percent, stated Istat.