The Italian shopping cart is getting more and more expensive. To say it are the provisional estimates of Istat relative to the month of March.
Considering only i frequently purchased products, these are increased by 0,6% compared to February and 4,6% on an annual basis. The data reaches a level not reached since October 2008. Coffee and sugar they are among the assets that have weighed the most on the balance sheets of Italian families with an increase on an annual basis of 12,8% and 12,5% respectively. The situation for medium-frequency purchase goods is slightly better, both on a cyclical basis (+0,4%) and in trend terms (+3,1% compared to 3,2% in February).
One of the products that has pushed the consumer price index up energetically is given by the cigarettes (+8,8% on an annual basis and +1,7% compared to February), emblem of the good (or bad) that is difficult to "replace", whose price change has a greater relative weight on the lowest incomes.
It keeps stable to the values of February the general rate of inflation on an annual basis (+3,3%), while it records a monthly increase of 0,5% compared to February.
Carrying out a sectoral analysis, also in March, the greatest contribution to the economic increase can be attributed to energy goods (+3%). Significant impacts also derive from the monthly increases in transport-related services (+1,4%).
Completely opposite the trend for i consumer prices for the 17 eurozone countries represented by Eurostat: in March a annual rate down to 2,6%, slightly below the consensus estimate (2,5%). However, the European figure does not convince the ECB, which is aiming for a target of less than 2% per year.
