The prices of food, home and personal care goods, the so-called ‘shopping cart’ slow down on a trend basis from +2.3% in April to +1.8% in May as well as those of high-frequency products purchasing prices which went from +2.6% in April to +2.5% in May. Istat communicates this by releasing the definitive May inflation estimates.
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Finally, the national consumer price index for families of workers and employees (FOI), net of tobacco, recorded a change of 0.2% on a monthly basis and 0.8 on an annual basis. The stability of inflation – we read in the Istat note – underlies contrasting trends in various expenditure aggregates: the prices of processed food goods are slowing down (from +2.5% to +1.8%), of services relating to transport (from +2.7% to +2.4%) and Housing-related Services (from +2.8% to +2.6%); on the other hand, the decline in the prices of unregulated energy attenuates (from -13.9% to -13.5%) and that of regulated ones stops (from -1.3% to +0.7%) and accelerates slightly the prices of recreational, cultural and personal care services (from +3.8% to +4.3%). The trend trend in the prices of goods recorded a slightly larger decline (from -0.6% to -0.9%) and that of services was stable (at +2.9%), determining an increase in the inflationary differential between the services and goods sectors (+3.8 percentage points, from +3.5 in April). The cyclical increase in the general index mostly reflects the growth in prices of 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 partially offset by the decrease in the prices of non-regulated energy goods (-1.1%) and durable goods (-0.5%). «In May – comments Istat – inflation remained at the same level as April (+0.8%). The stabilization of the growth rate is mainly due to the easing of tensions on the prices of processed food goods (+1.8% from +2.5% in April) and of some types of services (transport and housing-related) , the effects of which compensate for the weakening of deflationary pressures coming from the energy sector, where prices show a sharply rising trend profile, although remaining at largely negative values (-11.6% from -12.1%). The annual dynamics of shopping cart prices continues to decline (+1.8% from +2.3%), as does underlying inflation, which stands at +2.0% (from +2 ,1%)”.
Prices rising
In the month of May, prices for recreational services, transport, and above all “accommodation and catering” services increased. This is what is highlighted in the tables released by Istat which accompany the note with the definitive estimates of inflation for May. In particular, the prices of hotels and restaurants increased by 1.4% compared to April and by 4.5% on an annual basis. While recreational services, shows and cultural activities increased by 1.0% on April and by 1.9% on an annual basis. Finally, transport is slightly down on the month (-0.5%), but up compared to May 2023 (+2.5%)
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