Final data published by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) showed that in February consumer prices rose by 0.8% per year after a similar increase in January. Economists also expected the CPI to rise by 0.8%. The stabilization of the growth underlies contrasting trends: the prices of unprocessed food (from +7.5% to +4.4%), of processed food including alcohol (from +4.5% to +3.4%), of non energy industrial goods (from +1.7% to +1.2%), of services related to transport (from +4.2% to +3.8%), of services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +3.3% to +3.2%) and of services related to housing (from +2.8% to +2.7%) slowed down. On the contrary, the prices of non-regulated energy products (from -20.4% to -17.2%), regulated energy products (from -20.6% to -18.4%), of tobacco (from +2.2% to +2.6%) and of services related to communication (from +0.2% to +0.8%) have increased.
ISTAT said that the core CPI - excluding energy and unprocessed foods - rose by 2.3% per year after an increase by 2.7% per year in January. CPI growth excluding energy slowed to 2.6% per annum from 3.0% per annum in January.
On a monthly basis, CPI rose 0.5%, slowing compared to January (+0.3%). Consensus estimates also suggested a 0.1% increase.
The data also showed that in February, the harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) - an indicator that allows to compare inflation in Italy with inflation in European countries - remained unchanged on a monthly basis and rose by 0.8% per year. In January, HICP fell by 1.1% m/m and rose by 0.9% per annum.