MILAN – Italian inflation continues to decelerate, although remaining at very high levels and far from the fateful 2% that is the ECB’s target. After the German data, which showed prices to be even hotter than expected, Istat saw a slightly stronger-than-expected decline. In August The national index of consumer prices for the whole Community (Nic), excluding tobacco, recorded an increase of 0.4% on a monthly basis and 5.5% on an annual basisup from +5.9% in the previous month.

The preliminary estimate by the Statistical Institute is therefore slightly better than that of the analysts, for example Unicredit which in the morning forecast a 5.6% annual gain. “The slowdown – explains Istat – is due, among other things, to the annual decrease in the prices of unregulated energy goods (from +7.0% to +5.7%), which include fuel, gas and electricity on the free market, unprocessed (from +10.4% to +9.2%) and processed (from +10.5% to +10.1%) foods”.

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Acquired inflation for 2023, ie the average growth that would occur if prices remained stable for the remainder of the year, is +5.7% for the overall index and +5.2% for the fund (excluding energy and fresh Groceries). .

Against this background, the growth rate of the so-called prices in August remains high, but slowing down “Shopping venture”. Prices of groceries and household and personal care products tended to show a further weakening (from +10.2% to +9.6%), while prices of frequently bought products increased (+5.5% to +7.0%) .

In detail of the products that Coldiretti talk about a Price increase for fruit by 9.4%, for vegetables even by 20.2%“with prices tripling from field to fork and agricultural producers demanding a minimum price that at least covers the cost of production, as required by the law against unfair practices and speculation.” For the association, it is the impact of “the exponential increase in production costs in the countryside and the abnormal climatic trend that has decimated the harvests, with production cuts due to heat, drought and bad weather ranging from 30% to 63% of peaches this year. “% nectarines for pears”.

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“For families, an economic situation persists, confirmed by the weakness in consumption, especially in the food sector,” comments Carlo Alberto Buttarelli, President of Federdistribuzione. This confirms the “commitment” made at the beginning of August with Mimit “and sees us at the table with the aim of reaching the protocol for an “anti-inflation quarter” to which we hope we can also find the approval of the manufacturers of consumer goods to carry out this initiative to make effective.

Eurozone data is stable at 5.3%

The data will come under close scrutiny from the ECB, which must decide how to hike rates further to counter the high price. “Headline inflation has come down,” the board member noted this morning Isabel Schnabel at an inflation conference organized by the Fed. But “underlying price pressures remain stubbornly high, with domestic factors now being the main drivers of euro area inflation. Therefore, sufficiently tight monetary policy is crucial to bring inflation back to our 2% target on time.” “Uncertainty about the pace of disinflation underpins the Governing Council’s data-driven approach,” he added.

In the euro zoneAccording to data released today by Eurostat, annual inflation is indeed stable compared to July according to the flash estimate. Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, food, alcohol and tobacco are expected to record their highest annual rate in August (9.8%, versus 10.8% in July), followed by services (5.5%, versus 5.6% in July). ), non-energy industrials (4.8%, compared with 5% in July) and energy (-3.3%, compared with -6.1% in July). Among the major eurozone economies, Austria recorded 7.6%, Germany 6.4%, France 5.7%, Italy 5.5%, Spain and Belgium 2.4%. The rates are still very high for Slovakia (9.6%) and Croatia (8.5%).