Italy: Nomisma, “difficult months for consumers with inflation at two speeds”

Istat published the final inflation data for April this morning, which slows down from 6.5% in March to 6% in April. “The two speeds of inflation remain,” explains Lucio Poma, Nomisma’s chief economist. “General inflation is falling, but core inflation is growing significantly: from 1.9% to 2.4%. The general decline in inflation is solely attributable to a slowdown in the growth of energy prices, which however remain at high levels. It will be difficult months for consumers who will see the prices of the shopping cart increase, but not their wages “, adds Poma, explaining that at the moment companies cannot add new wage costs to energy and raw material costs.” The power of energy. Citizen buying will probably continue to decline for a certain period, as long as underlying inflation does not stop, or when companies that have structurally absorbed the energy increases are ready to raise workers’ wages “, concludes the economist.