© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People shop at a fruit and vegetable market in central Rome, Italy, July 13, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile
By Antonella Cinelli
ROME (Reuters) – Italian EU-Harmonised Consumer Prices (HICP) eased in February on lower energy prices but still beat expectations, with core inflation accelerating further , data showed Thursday.
The HICP index stood at a preliminary 0.2% mom in February, and annual inflation slowed to 9.9% from 10.7% in January, ISTAT said.
The annual reading was above the median forecast of 9.4% in a Reuters poll of 13 analysts.
Core inflation (net of fresh food and energy) stood at 7.1% year-on-year in the HICP index in February, compared to 6.6% in the previous month.
Italy, which relies heavily on imports for its energy needs, has seen inflation rise faster than many of its euro zone partners as international gas prices have soared.
Now that gasoline costs are declining, Italian inflation should fall more sharply than in most of the euro zone, said Loredana Federico, Italy’s chief economist at UniCredit.
THE DISINFLATION OF ITALY https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/klpygnzaepg/UNICREDIT.PNG
ISTAT data confirms the ongoing slowdown, Federico said, with energy prices slowing to an increase of 28.2% year-on-year last month from 42.8% in January.
He pointed out that the surprise regarding UniCredit’s expectations “mainly affected the food price component, maintaining sustained growth in February. In particular, the year-on-year downward trend in fresh food prices was interrupted.”
The official ISTAT statistics agency also reported that the main domestic price index (NIC (NASDAQ:)), stood at 9.2% annually in February, declining from a 10.0% annual rate in January.
It was not only in Italy where prices fell less than expected.
Euro zone inflation eased to 8.5% in February from 8.6% the previous month, above expectations of 8.2% in a Reuters survey of economists, and core inflation, a tracked gauge closely by the European Central Bank, jumped to 5.6% from 5.3%. in January.