Eurasia Press & News
Italy’s inflation rate has reached a 26-year high of 4.8% mainly due to the increase in energy prices, preliminary estimates for January 2022 published by Italy’s national statistics institute (ISTAT) show.
“The national consumer price index (CPI) for the entire community, gross on tobacco, increased by 1.6% on a monthly basis and by 4.8% on an annual basis (from +3.9% in the previous month)”, ISTAT’s preliminary estimates show.
The main reason is the rise in energy prices which, according to the institute, increased from +29.1% in December to +38.6%. The highest increase regards regulated energy prices (from +41.9% to +93.5%). Unregulated energy prices increased slightly from +22.0% to +23.1%.
With food, a rise was registered on both processed (from +2.0% to +2.4%) and unprocessed products (from +3.6% to +5.4%).
Despite the pandemic, recreational, cultural and personal care services went up from +2.3% to +3.5%).
The only decrease in prices was seen in transport services, which slowed down from +3.6% to +1.4%.
Italy is currently looking to find a structural solution to the increase in gas prices. Prime Minister Mario Draghi had a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which the latter said that supplies of Russian gas would continue to arrive in Italy without interruption.
