(Telestock) – Inflation continues to fall in Italywhich in August touched 1.1% from 1.3% in the previous month. This is what Istat reports, which has published preliminary estimates, reporting that the consumer price index, excluding tobacco, increased by 0.2% on a monthly basis. The trend is in line with the inflation easing in the Eurozone.
The slight slowdown in the inflation rate primarily reflects the widening of the trend-based decline in consumer prices. Energy goods unregulated (from -6.0% to -8.6%) and of the Durable goods (from -1.2% to -1.8%), but also the deceleration of prices of Housing related services (from +2.7% to +2.5%). Support for the dynamics of the general index is instead due to the acceleration of the prices of Regulated Energy Goods (from +11.7% to +14.0%) and, to a lesser extent, of Transport related services (from +2.2% to +2.9%) and of the Processed food products (from +1.6% to +1.8%).
In the month of August core inflationnet of energy and fresh food, rises to 2% (from +1.9% in July), and that excluding energy products only at +1.9% (from +1.8%).
Taken together, the prices of the goods accentuate the decline on a trend basis (from -0.1% to -0.5%), while the service dynamics is slightly accelerating (from +3.0% to +3.2%), which is affected by tensions in the air transport sector. The inflation gap between the services and goods sectors increases, reaching +3.7 percentage points (from +3.1 in July).
The stronger growth in the prices of processed foods contributes to the‘acceleration of the so-called “shopping cart”: prices of food, household and personal care products accelerate on a trend basis (from +0.7% to +0.9%)while those of the High frequency purchase products slow down (from +1.8% to +1.1%).
The quarterly increase in the overall index mainly reflects the growth in prices of Regulated energy goods (+3.2%), Transport related services (+1.9%, mostly due to seasonal factors) and Processed food (+0.9%). The effects of these increases were only partly offset by the decrease in prices of Non-regulated energy goods (-1.0%) and Unprocessed food (-0.6%).
The acquired inflation for 2024 is +1.1% for the general index and +2.2% for the underlying component.
According to preliminary estimates, the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) decreased by 0.1% on a monthly basis, due to the summer sales which the NIC does not take into account, and increased by 1.3% on an annual basis (decelerating from +1.6% in July).