Final data published by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) showed that in May, consumer prices rose by 0.8% per year after a similar increase in April. Economists also expected growth of 0.8% per annum. Price growth has slowed for processed food (including alcohol and tobacco) (from +2.5% to +1.8%), services related to transport (from +2.7% to +2.4%) and services related to housing (from +2.8% to +2.6%). On the contrary, the prices of non-regulated energy products (from -13.9% to -13.5%), regulated energy products (from -1.3% to +0.7%) and services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +3.8% to +4.3%) have increased.
ISTAT said that the core CPI - excluding energy and unprocessed foods - rose by 2.0% per year after an increase of 2.1% in April. CPI growth excluding energy also slowed to 2.0% per annum from 2.1% per annum.
On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.2%, as expected, after an increase of 0.1% in April.
The data also showed that in May, the harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) - an indicator that allows to compare inflation in Italy with inflation in European countries - rose by 0.2% on a monthly basis and by 0.8% per year. In April, HICP increased by 0.5% over the month and by 0.9% per annum.