ROME, Sept 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Prices in Italy were 8.4 percent higher last month than they were a year earlier, a level that had not been recorded since Dec, 1985, the country’s National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) reported yesterday.
Preliminary data from ISTAT showed prices in August were 0.8 percent higher than in July.
Energy-related goods were the main factor behind the jump, ISTAT said, with a year-on-year increase of 44.9 percent, higher than the 42.9-percent rise in July, compared to a year earlier.
Over the three months starting in Jun, Italy’s annualised inflation rate has been eight percent, 7.9 percent, and 8.4 percent, respectively – the three highest monthly totals on record, since the formal creation of the euro currency in 1999.
Despite the increase in energy prices, the rate of increase for transportation services slowed slightly last month, rising by 8.4 percent compared to a year earlier, down from the 8.9-percent annualised increase, registered in July.
Prices for consumer goods rose to 11.8 percent, while costs for services climbed 3.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the core inflation rate, which excludes prices for energy and volatile consumer goods, like food, was 4.4 percent, the highest rate since May, 1996.
Over the first eight months of the year, the cumulative inflation rate is seven percent, compared to the same period in 2021.– NNN-AGENCIES
