The slowdown of the annual inflation rate was mainly due to the prices of non-regulated energy products from 8.4 per cent to 7.0 per cent and to a lesser extent, of non-energy industrial goods from 4.8 per cent to 4.5 per cent, and of regulated energy products from -29.0 per cent to -30.3 per cent.
In July 2023, the Italian consumer price index NIC remained unchanged from the previous month, with an annual rate of 5.9 per cent, down from 6.4 per cent.
This slowdown was mainly attributed to the prices of non-regulated energy products decreasing to 7.0 per cent, as per ISTAT.
The core inflation was 5.2 per cent, down from 5.6 per cent in June.
The core inflation (all-items excluding energy and unprocessed food) was 5.2 per cent, down from 5.6 per cent in June, and the all-items index excluding energy was 5.5 per cent, from 5.8 per cent in the previous month.
As for goods, the year-on-year (YoY) growth rate was 7.0 per cent, down from 7.5 per cent in June. As a consequence, the negative inflationary gap between services and goods decreases in absolute value, from -3.0 percentage points in June to -2.9, ISTAT said in a press release.
The zero increase on a monthly basis was due to the prices of several categories including that of non-durable goods at 0.3 per cent whose growth was offset by the decrease of prices of regulated energy products at -1.8 per cent, and of non-regulated energy products at -1.3 per cent among others.
In July 2023, the Italian harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) decreased by 1.6 per cent on a monthly basis due to the summer sales not considered by NIC and increased by 6.3 per cent on an annual basis, down from 6.7 per cent in the previous month. The flash estimate was 6.4 per cent.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)