Inflation accelerates in May: at the top since November 1990

In May, after the slowdown in April, inflation accelerates again, rising to a level that has not been recorded since November 1990. This was revealed by Istat commenting on the data released today. The ‘shopping cart’ also accelerates, to + 6.7%, as it had not happened since March 1986. In the past month it is estimated that the national index of consumer prices for the entire community, gross of tobaccos, registers a an increase of 0.8% on a monthly basis and of 6.8% on an annual basis (from + 6.0% in the previous month); the preliminary estimate was + 6.9%, according to what emerges from the final data released today by Istat. The acceleration of inflation on a trend basis, after the slowdown in April, is due to the prices of different types of products and in particular of energy goods, whose growth passes from + 39.5% in April to + 42.6% due to non-regulated energy (from + 29.8% to + 32.9%; the growth in regulated energy prices is stable at + 64.3%), food goods (from + 6.1% to +7 , 1%), especially of processed food goods (from + 5.0% to + 6.6%), of recreational, cultural and personal care services (from + 2.4% to + 4.4%) and services related to transport (from + 5.1% to +6.0%). Therefore, “core inflation”, net of energy and fresh food, accelerates from + 2.4% to +3 , 2% and that net of energy goods alone from + 2.9% to + 3.6%. On an annual basis, both the prices of goods (from + 8.7% to + 9.7%) and those of services (from + 2.1% to + 3.1%) accelerate; therefore, the negative inflation differential between the latter and the prices of goods remains stable (-6.6 percentage points as in April). The cyclical increase in the general index is mainly due to the prices of non-regulated energy goods (+ 3.6%), processed foodstuffs (+ 1.3%), recreational, cultural and health care services of the person (+ 1.2%) and unprocessed food (+ 1.1%). The inflation acquired for 2022 is equal to + 5.7% for the general index and + 2.4% for the core component. The harmonized index of consumer prices (Ipca) recorded an increase of 0.9% on a monthly basis and of 7.3% on an annual basis (from + 6.3% in the previous month), confirming the preliminary estimate. The national index of consumer prices for blue-collar and white-collar families, net of tobacco, recorded an increase of 0.8% on a monthly basis and of 6.8% on an annual basis. The high increases in the prices of energy goods continue to be the driving force of inflation (with those of non-regulated products accelerating) and their consequences are increasingly spreading to other product sectors, whose increased production costs reverberate on the final phase of marketing, notes Istat commenting on the data released today. In fact, the consumer prices of almost all other types of product accelerate, with processed foodstuffs which increase the price growth of the so-called “shopping cart” by one point, which reaches + 6.7%, as was not the case since March 1986 (when it was + 7.2%).