The slowdown in inflation continued in July, reaching +6% from +6.4% in June, returning to the same level as in April 2022. Istat communicates it by distributing the preliminary estimate on consumer prices. In July 2023, the national consumer price index for the entire community (NIC), gross of tobacco, recorded an increase of 0.1% on a monthly basis.
“The dynamics of inflation, still strongly influenced by the evolution of the prices of energy goods, also reflects the slowdown on a trend basis in the prices of processed food products and services”. Istat highlights this in the note on consumer prices in July. The deceleration of the inflation rate is primarily due to the slowdown on a trend basis in the prices of services relating to transport (from +4.7% to +2.4%), of unregulated energy goods (from +8, 4% to +7.0%) and, to a lesser extent, of processed food (from +11.5% to +10.9%), of other goods (from +4.8% to +4.6%) , various services (from +2.9% to +2.7%) and tobacco (from +2.5% to +1.9%). These effects were only partially offset by the upward tensions in the prices of unprocessed food (from +9.4% to +10.4%) and housing services (from +3.5% to +3, 6%).
In addition, “core inflation” slowed further in July, net of energy and fresh food (from +5.6% to +5.2%), as well as net of energy goods alone (from +5.8%, recorded in June, to +5.6%).The growth on an annual basis in the prices of goods (from +7.5% to +7.1%) and that of services (from + 4.5% to +4.1%), notes Istat, keeping the inflation differential between the services and goods sectors stable at -3.0 percentage points. The cyclical increase in the general index is mainly due the increase in the prices of processed food (+0.9%), recreational, cultural and personal care services and transport-related services (+0.4% both), non-durable goods and miscellaneous services (+0.3% both); these effects were partly offset by the drop in energy prices, both regulated (-1.5%) and unregulated (-1.3%), unprocessed food (-0 .8%) and Tobacco (-0.6%).