The consumer price indices for April 2024 were developed taking into account a progressive reduction in the severity of the health emergency caused by Covid-19 and the reopening of a large part of the commercial activities offering consumer goods and services. While remaining above the norm, the number of missed detections has therefore decreased.
The structure of the survey on consumer prices, based on the use of a plurality of channels for data acquisition, made it possible to reduce the negative effects of the high number of missed surveys on the quality of measurements of the dynamics of consumer prices. consumption. As recalled in the Istat methodological note, the indices at the different levels of aggregation, both national and local, which have had a share of attributions greater than 50% (in terms of missing prices and/or weight), are reported through the use of the “i” flag (imputed data). In the city of Messina in April 2024 there was a trend increase of +0.6% and a cyclical decrease of -0.2% in the consumer price index. Food and non-alcoholic beverages (+2.1%), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (3.5%), clothing and footwear (2.8%), furniture, household items and services ( +0.5%), health services and health expenditure (+0.8%), transport (+1.8%), recreation, entertainment and culture (+0.8%), education (+0.9 %), accommodation and catering services (+3.1%) and other goods and services (+3%). Housing, water, electricity and fuels (-8.8%) and communications (-4.1%) tend to decrease compared to the previous year. This is what emerged during the meeting of the municipal price control commission, chaired by the councilor with responsibility for Citizen Services Massimiliano Minutoli.
The note offers a concise analysis of the factors that contributed to determining the more marked price dynamics of centrally recorded goods and services in April 2024:
Products for smokers: there is a generalized economic increase, more accentuated for articles for smokers (+3.9%) and cigarettes (+1.5%; +2.8% trend) and milder for other tobaccos (+0, 7%; +5.5% trend) and cigars and cigarillos (+0.1%; +1.3% trend).
Telephone and communication services: there are slight cyclical increases in fixed telephony services on the switched network (+0.1%; +0.1% trend), mobile telephony services (+0.1%; -0.7% trend), and internet services on mobile networks (+0.1%; -1.0% trend).
Transport services: generalized economic increases have been recorded in air transport. The greatest increase occurs in intercontinental flights (+8.6%; -11.0% trend), followed by European ones (+8.5%; -5.4% trend) and, finally, by national ones ( +1.3%; -5.1% trend). Furthermore, there was an increase in maritime transport prices (+0.7%; -4.3% trend), due exclusively to inland destinations, in particular to the smaller islands. Finally, national rail transport decreased (-1.0%; +2.4% trend), due to the greater availability of commercial offers for the high-speed service, while regional rail transport increased slightly (+0.1 %; +6.6%), due to the price increase of a regional operator.
Tourist and recreational activities: in economic terms, holiday packages increase at an international level (+4.7%; +0.7% trend) while they decrease at a national level (-0.9%; +17.2% trend). The increase in international package holidays mainly depends on the Mediterranean Sea, African Sea, Continental Europe, Eastern Europe and Southern Africa segments. Again in economic terms, holiday villages, campsites, youth hostels and the like are increasing (+0.4%; -4.4% trend) and agritourisms (+1.6%), due to the increase in price lists some farmhouses in the North and Center. As regards recreational activities, amusement parks recorded an increase (+2.7%; +6.0% trend), due to the increase in the prices of some amusement parks which start the season in April, and national parks, zoos, botanical gardens (+0.2%; +1.1%), compared to a decrease in ski lifts (-4.7%; +8.4% trend).
Culture: On a cyclical level, the prices of national newspapers are growing (+1.7%; +4.3% year-on-year) compared to a decrease in periodicals (-0.3%; +0.4% year-on-year) . The price variations are attributable to a different distribution of the attachments.
