Inflation in March 2023 at 7.6%, Istat prices are slowing down but not the shopping cart – Corriere.it

Istat revises inflation last March slightly downwards after the preliminary data which already announced a decline. In the definitive estimates, the figure drops to +7.6%, on an annual basis, from +9.1% in the previous month. In the preliminary estimate it was +7.7%. Also in March, the national consumer price index for the entire community, gross of tobacco, recorded a decrease of 0.4% on a monthly basis.
The tension on the prices of the so-called shopping cart remains high. The prices of food goods, for home and personal care, are up by 12.6%, with a very slight decrease on a trend basis (from +12.7%)while those of frequently purchased products show a more decisive slowdown (from +9.0% to +7.6%).

The return of inflation, according to Istat, driven by the dynamics of the prices of energy goodsdragged down by the price of bills on the protected market which are in continuous decline with dynamics of a minus sign, followed by the slowdown in the increase in prices on the free market.
In detail, the slowdown in inflation is due to the deceleration on a trend basis in the prices of non-regulated energy goods (from +40.8% to +18.9%) and to the accentuated decline in those of regulated energy (from – 16.4% to -20.3%), the effects of which were only partially offset by the acceleration in the prices of unprocessed food (from +8.7% to +9.1%), those of the relative services housing (+3.3% to +3.5%), recreational, cultural and personal care services (from +6.1% to +6.3%) and tobacco (+1 .8% to +2.5%).

The annual figure revised to 5%

In the final estimates for inflation for March, Istat also cuts down the data on inflation acquired for 2023, revised to +5% for the general index and to +4% for the core component. It was 5.1% and 4.1% respectively in preliminary estimates. In March, core inflation, excluding energy and fresh food, remained stable at +6.3%, as did that excluding energy only, which stood at +6.4%. After the progression that characterized 2022, core inflation stabilizes at +6.3%, comments the National Institute of Statistics.

The impact on families

In the first quarter of 2023, the impact of inflation, measured by the Ipca (Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices for European Union countries), remains stronger on households with lower spending capacity than on those with higher spending levels (+12.5% ​​and +8.2% respectively) but the gap is narrowing.
This was reported by Istat, explaining that for less well-off families, inflation went from +18.4% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to +12.5% ​​in the first quarter of 2023, while for those in the group with greater spending capacity it fell from + 9.9% in the last quarter of the previous year to +8.2% in the first quarter of 2023. Therefore, the inflationary differential between the first and fifth classes is reduced, almost halving, reaching just over four percentage points.

The Codacons: an illusion

The slowdown in inflation recorded in March by Istat is unfortunately an optical illusion due to the decrease in electricity and gas bills, while the goods most purchased by families, from food to shopping carts, continue to grow at a dizzying rate, criticizes Codacons . Net of energy, for all other products we are still in the presence of a price emergency, with the shopping cart rising by 12.6% over the year, analyzes Codacons again. Inflation at 7.6% is equivalent to higher spending of 2,223 euros per year for the typical family, which rises to 2,879 euros for a family with two children.

The ranking of cities

Codacons, on the basis of the provincial data released today by Istat, has drawn up the ranking of the cities where inflation grows the most in March, and the related spending effects on families based on the average consumption of resident citizens. Genoa is the city where inflation grows the most in March, with a rate of 9.8%, bringing up what Potenza, where prices increase by only 4.8% on an annual basis. In Bolzano and Milan the repercussions are heaviest, with the typical family spending over 2,200 euros more on an annual basis due to inflation.

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