Inflation continues to rise. According to theIstat, in fact, in February the national consumer price index for the entire community recorded an increase of 0,3% compared to January and of 1,5% on an annual basis, after +1% on a year recorded in the previous month. According to the statistical institute, this is the largest increase since the +1,6% in March 2013.
The year-on-year increase in inflation is mainly due to rising prices unprocessed food (+8,8% on year), unregulated energy goods (+12,1%) and transport services. The cyclical increase, on the other hand, is linked above all to the rises in the prices of the more volatile components of consumer goods: unprocessed food (+3,0%), transport (+1%) and unregulated energy goods (+0,5 %).
On an annual basis, the growth in the prices of goods (+1,9%, from +1,2% in January) marks a more marked acceleration than that of services (+0,9%, from +0,7% in previous month). As a result, compared to January, the negative inflation differential between services and goods doubles to minus 1,0 percentage points (from minus 0,5 in January).
On the other hand, the prices of the shopping cart of Italians who recorded the largest increase in eight years. The prices of food, home and personal care goods, according to provisional data from Istat, in fact increased by 1,1% on a monthly basis and by 3,1% on an annual basis (was +1,9% in January).
"What pushes inflation - notes Coldiretti - is the record increase of 37,3% in the prices of fresh vegetables and 9,4% of fruit compared to the same month last year due to the bad weather which, with frost and snow, decimated agricultural crops in January. The increase in the prices of fresh vegetables in February - underlines Coldiretti - is also substantial compared to January with an increase of 12,5%. In January, the wave of bad weather caused damage to the countryside in excess of 400 million euros, but together with farmers, consumers also risk footing the bill for climate change, who suffer the effects of speculation in a situation in which vegetable prices increase on average triple from field to table”.
