According to preliminary estimates, in December 2018 the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) decreased by 0.1% on monthly basis and increased by 1.1% with respect to December 2017, down from +1.6% in the previous month.

In 2018, the average annual rate of change of consumer prices, measured by NIC, was +1.2 and excluding energy and unprocessed food, core inflation was +0.7%, the same rate of change as in 2017 for both.

In December, the slowdown of the growth on annual basis of All items index was mainly due to prices of Non regulated energy products (from +7.8% in November to +2.6%) and to a lesser extent, to prices of Processed food (from +1.1% to +0.7%) and of Services related to transport (from +2.0% to +0.6%).