(Finance) – Inflation gallops in Italy as in the rest of the world and marks in March the ninth consecutive rise, reaching 6.7%, top since July 1991. This is what Istat reports, which today published preliminary estimates, noting an increase of 1.2% on a monthly basis and of 6.7% on an annual basis (from + 5.7% in the previous month).
The acceleration of inflation is due to energywith the prices of Energy goods which accelerated from + 45.9% in February to + 52.9%, in particular those of the non-regulated component (from + 31.3% to + 38.7%), and, to a lesser extent, in the prices of food processed (from + 3.1% to + 4.0%) and unprocessed (from + 6.9% to + 8.0%) and Durable goods (from + 1.2% to + 1.9%) .
Core inflationnet of energy and fresh food, accelerates to 2% from 1.7% and that net of energy goods alone went from + 2.1% to + 2.5%.
On an annual basis, the prices of goods (from + 8.6% to + 10.2%), while those of services remain stable (+ 1.8%); therefore the negative inflation differential between the latter and the prices of goods widens (from -6.8 percentage points in February to -8.4). Both the prices of food goods, for home and personal care (from + 4.1% to + 5%) and those of products with high frequency of purchase (from + 5.3% to +6.9) accelerate %).
The acquired inflation for 2022 is equal to + 5.3% for the general index and + 1.6% for the core component.
The harmonized index consumer prices (HICP) instead increases by 2.6% on a monthly basis, mainly due to the end of the winter sales, which the NIC does not take into account, and 7% on an annual basis (from + 6.2% in February).