Istat, inflation slows down in January with the slowdown in energy prices

MILANO – Signs of slowing downinflation in January. According to the data communicated byState prices rose 10% year-on-year and 0.1% month-on-month, down from +11.2% in December and also from +10.1% preliminarily reported for January.

The decline in the inflation rate, explains the institute, is mainly due to the strong slowdown on a trend basis in the prices of regulated energy goods (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 personal care services (+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%).

The tendency dynamics of the so-called is attenuated shopping cartthe basket of food, home and personal care prices (from +12.6% to +12.0%), while on the contrary the price of products with a high frequency of purchase is accentuated (from +8 .5% to +8.9%).

“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 cyclical increase in the general index is mainly due to the prices of housing services (+1.6%), processed food (+1.3%), durable goods (+1.1%) and non durable (+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 Services relating to transport (-1.7% due to seasonal factors). The inflation acquired for 2023 is equal to +5.2% for the general index and +3.2% for the core component.