News in chiaroscuro from the numbers oninflation published this morning by Istat. TO May the national consumer price index is up 0,1% from April, against +0,2% of the preliminary estimate. Also the figure on an annual basis has registered an increase of 0,1%, in this case reversing the trend from April, when the index remained in deflationary territory (-0,1%).
That of May is the first positive trend data for four months and, according to Istat, the recovery is mainly linked to the further reduction of the decline on an annual basis in the prices of unregulated energy goods (-7,2%, from -8,7% in April) and the acceleration of the trend growth of service prices, in turn due to the increase in prices in the transport sector (+0,8%, from -0,6% in April).
THEunderlying inflation, excluding unprocessed food and energy goods, recorded a rise to +0,6%, from +0,3% in April, while excluding energy goods alone it rose to +0,8%, from + 0,6% of the previous month.
Compared to May 2014, the prices of beni recorded a further reduction in the decline (-0,3%, from -0,5% in April) and the growth rate of the prices of services accelerated (+0,7%, from +0,3% in the previous month). As a result, compared to April 2015, the inflation differential between services and goods widened by two tenths of a percentage point.
As for the so-called shopping cart, the prices of frequently purchased products increased by 0,3% in both quarterly and trend terms (the annual rate was zero in April).
The Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (hippo) grew by 0,2% both on a monthly basis and compared to May 2014 (the previous month the trend rate was -0,1%), confirming the preliminary estimate.
