Inflation drops to 5.5% in August in Italy

Italy's annual inflation rate remained on a downward trend in August, falling to 5.5% from 5.9% in July, Istat said on Thursday according to preliminary estimates, Azernews reports, citing ANSA.

In August the rate of change of the Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was +0.4% on a monthly basis, the statistics agency added. Istat said the slowdown is due, among other things, to the year-on-year drop in prices of non-regulated energy goods (from +7.0% to +5.7%), which include petrol, gas and electricity on the free market, unprocessed food (from +10.4% to +9.2%) and processed food (from +10.5% to +10.1%).

Istat also said the rate of price increases of its "trolley" index of goods such as food and personal and household products continued to slow on an annual basis, dropping from +10.2% to +9.6%.