Istat confirms inflation estimates for May: +0.8%.
Shopping trolley decline continues: last month +1.8%
2' min read
2' min read
In May 2024, the national index of consumer prices for the entire community, before tobacco, increased by 0.2% on a monthly basis and by 0.8% on an annual basis. This was announced by Istat, confirming the preliminary estimate. Also confirmed was the preliminary estimate of the HICP index, which rose by 0.2% on a monthly basis and by 0.8 on an annual basis. Core inflation, net of energy and fresh food, decelerated, as did inflation net of energy goods only (both from +2.1% to +2.0%). While the inflation outlook for 2024 is +0.8% for the overall index and +1.8% for the core component.
Slow down the 'shopping cart'
.The prices of food, household and personal care goods, the so-called "shopping trolley" slowed down on a trend basis from +2.3% in April to +1.8% in May, as did those of high-frequency goods, which fell from +2.6% in April to +2.5% in May.
Adversarial trends
.The stability of inflation," reads the ISTAT note, "implies contrasting trends in various spending aggregates: slowing down are the prices of processed food (from +2.5% to +1.8%), services related to transport (from +2.7% to +2.4%) and those for housing (from +2.8% to +2.6%); On the other hand, the decline in prices of unregulated energy products (from -13.9% to -13.5%) eased and the decline in regulated energy products came to a halt (from -1.3% to +0.7%), and prices of recreational, cultural and personal care services accelerated slightly (from +3.8% to +4.3%).
The tendential trend in the prices of goods recorded a slightly larger decrease (from -0.6% to -0.9%) and that of services was stable (at +2.9%), leading to an increase in the inflation differential between the services and goods segments (+3.8 percentage points, from +3.5 in April). The cyclical increase in the overall index reflected, for the most part, price growth in Regulated Energy Goods (+1.9%), Recreational, Cultural and Personal Care Services (+1.5%) and Unprocessed Food (+1.4%). The effects of these increases were only partly offset by decreases in the prices of non-regulated energy goods (-1.1%) and durable goods (-0.5%).
