Italy Inflation Rate Falls to Lowest on Record

Consumer Prices in Italy are expected to fall by an annual 0.6 percent in January of 2015, slipping deeper into deflationary territory due to lower cost of energy and decreases in transport prices.
Istat | Carolina Cunha | Carolina.cunha@tradingeconomics.com
2/3/2015 11:37:10 AM
It is the lowest rate since 1958, when the national institute of statistics started to publish the inflation rate.

On an annual basis, cost of transport decreased the most (-4.2 percent). Other downward pressures came from communication (-1.9 percent), housing, water, electricity and gas (-1.2 percent) and recreation and culture (-0.5 percent). Education prices registered the highest increase (+1.8 percent), followed by restaurants and hotels (+0.9 percent), furnishings and household equipment (+0.4 percent) and clothing and footwear (+0.3 percent). The food and non-alcoholic index rose by 0.1 percent.

Excluding unprocessed food and energy, core inflation was recorded at 0.3 percent when compared with the same period of previous year and excluding energy only, the inflation was at 0.3 percent, down from 0.5 percent in December 2014.

Month-over-month, the Italian consumer prices declined by 0.4 percent. The fall was mostly attributed to a decline in the prices of non-regulated energy products (-6.3 percent), which led to drops in cost of transport (-2.4 percent) and electricity (-2.2 percent). The decline was partially balanced by increases in fresh vegetables prices (+7.1% percent), on which seasonal factors had an impact.

The Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) declined by 2.4 percent with respect to January 2014, and fell 0.4 percent with respect to the previous month, according to preliminary estimates.

Italy Inflation Rate Falls to Lowest on Record