Consumer prices in Italy rise in March 2025, driven by energy and food costs

Preliminary data for March 2025 indicate that Italy’s national consumer price index (NIC) increased by 0.4% compared to the previous month and by 2.0% on an annual basis, up from 1.6% in February.

The annual inflation rate rose primarily due to higher prices for non-regulated energy products, which shifted from a year-on-year decline of 1.9% in February to a 1.3% increase in March. Additional upward pressures came from tobacco (rising from 4.1% to 4.6%), unprocessed food (from 2.9% to 3.3%), communication services (from 0.5% to 0.8%), recreation and personal care services (from 3.1% to 3.3%), and durable goods (from -1.5% to -1.2%).

At the same time, the pace of price increases slowed for regulated energy products, falling from 31.4% to 27.3%, and for transport services, from 1.9% to 1.6%.

Core inflation—which excludes energy and unprocessed food—remained stable at 1.7%, while inflation excluding only energy rose slightly to 1.8%, up from 1.7% in February.

Goods prices grew by 1.7% year-on-year, up from 1.1% in the previous month. Service prices held steady at a 2.4% annual rate. As a result, the inflation gap between services and goods narrowed from 1.3 percentage points in February to 0.7 points in March.

Prices for grocery items and unprocessed food increased by 0.1% month-on-month and by 2.1% compared to March 2024, a slight rise from 2.0% in February.

On a monthly basis, the increase in the NIC was largely driven by higher prices for non-regulated energy and transport services (both up 1.2%), as well as for tobacco and recreation-related services (each up 0.5%) and communication services (up 0.3%). These gains were partly offset by falling prices for regulated energy (-2.4%) and unprocessed food (-0.4%).

Italy’s harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP), which allows for comparison across EU countries, rose by 1.6% month-on-month, largely due to the conclusion of winter sales on clothing and footwear—factors not included in the NIC. On an annual basis, the HICP increased by 2.1%, up from 1.7% in February.

Source: Istat