In January 2023, Istat calculates that the national consumer price index for the entire community (NIC), gross of tobacco, recorded an increase of 0.1% on a monthly basis and 10.0% on an annual basis, from +11.6% in the previous month. The preliminary estimate was +10.1%.
The decline in the inflation rate, notes the Institute of Statistics, is mainly due to the strong slowdown on a trend basis in the prices of regulated energy goods (which went from 70.2% to -12.0%) and, to a lesser extent, those of unregulated energy (+63.3% to +59.3%), unprocessed food (+9.5% to +8.0%) and recreational, cultural and health care services person (+6.2% to +5.5%); the effects of these trends were only partially offset by the acceleration in the prices of durable goods (from +6.4% to +6.8%), non-durable goods (from +6.1% to +6.7 %) and services relating to housing (from +2.1% to +3.2%).
«In January, inflation shows a marked slowdown, falling to +10.0% – notes a note from Istat -. The decrease was affected by the performance of the most volatile components of the consumer price index, strongly conditioned by the trend reversal of regulated energy goods (-12.0% on an annual basis). However, the tensions on consumer prices of various categories of products, such as processed food, other goods (durable and non-durable) and housing services, which contribute to the slight acceleration of the basic component, remain widespread».
Core inflation, excluding energy and fresh food, accelerated from +5.8% to +6.0%, while that excluding energy only remained stable at +6.2%. On an annual basis, the prices of goods show a slowing profile (from +17.1% to +14.1%), while that relating to services shows a slight increase (from +4.1% to +4.2% ); therefore the negative inflationary differential between the latter and the prices of goods is reduced (from -13.0 in December to -9.9 percentage points).
The trend dynamics of the prices of foodstuffs, for home care and personal care eased (from +12.6% to +12.0%), while on the contrary that of products with a high frequency of purchase accentuated, those of packaged consumer goods up from +8.5% to +8.9%. The cyclical increase in the general index is mainly due to the prices of services for the home (+1.6%), processed food (+1.3%), durable goods (+1.1%) and non durables (+0.7%), unprocessed food (+0.6%) and unregulated energy (+0.5%); a containment effect instead derives from the drop in the prices of regulated energy (-25.7%) and those of transport-related services (-1.7% due to seasonal factors).