Final data published by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) showed that in June, consumer prices rose by 1.7% per year after increasing by 1.6% in May. Economists also expected growth of 1.7% per annum. The increase of the growth was mainly due to the prices of unprocessed food (from +3.5% to +4.2%), of services related to transport (from +2.6% to +2.9%) and of durable goods (from -1.1% to -0.8%). Meanwhile, the growth on the annual basis of the prices of regulated energy products (from +29.3% to +22.6%) slowed down.
ISTAT said that the core CPI - excluding energy and unprocessed foods - rose by 2.0% per year after increasing by 1.9% in May. CPI growth excluding energy has stabilized at 2.1% per annum.
On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.2%, offsetting the May decline (-0.1%) and confirming economists' forecasts. This was the sixth increase in the last 7 months.
The data also showed that in June, the harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) - an indicator that allows to compare inflation in Italy with inflation in European countries - rose by 0.2% on a monthly basis and by 1.8% per year. In May, HICP fell by 0.1% over the month and rose by 1.7% per year.