In
January
2024, on an annual basis,
retail sales increased by 1% in value and decreased in volume by 2.1%
.
This was revealed by Istat, reporting a cyclical decline of 0.1% in value and 0.3% in volume.
On a monthly basis, sales of food goods are stationary in value and record a decrease of 0.4% in volume, while those of non-food goods suffer a slight decline both in value (-0.1%) and in volume (-0 ,2%).
On a trend basis, sales of food goods are growing in value (+2.4%) and decreasing in volume (-2.8%);
those of non-food goods fell both in value (-0.2%) and in volume (-1.6%).
"The trend growth in value in January 2024 - explains Istat - characterizes all forms of distribution, with the exception of sales outside of shops".
In the quarter November 2023 - January 2024, in economic terms, retail sales increased in value (+0.3%) and decreased in volume (-0.1%).
Changes of a similar sign were recorded both for the sales of food goods (respectively +0.4% in value and -0.3% in volume) and for those of non-food goods (+0.2% in value and -0. 1% by volume).
As regards non-food goods, heterogeneous trend variations are recorded between the product groups.
The greatest increase concerns perfumery and personal care products (+5.8%), while household appliances, radios, TVs and recorders recorded the most significant decline (-4.9%).
Compared to January 2023, the value of retail sales is growing for large-scale distribution (+1.4%), for sales of businesses operating on small surfaces (+0.5%) and e-commerce (+1, 0%), while sales outside of stores decreased (-0.4%).
In February inflation is stable, the shopping cart slows down
In February, inflation remained stable on an annual basis.
This was revealed by Istat, confirming the preliminary estimates.
The national consumer price index for the entire community (NIC), including tobacco, recorded an increase of 0.1% on a monthly basis and 0.8% on an annual basis, as in the previous month.
Core inflation, net of energy and fresh food, decelerates from +2.7% to +2.3% and that net of energy goods alone from +3.0% to +2.6%.
The acquired inflation for 2024 is equal to +0.5% for the general index and +1.0% for the underlying component.
The "shopping cart"
(the prices of food, home and personal care goods)
slows down on a trend basis from +5.1% to +3.4%.
The prices of high-frequency products are also slowing down: from +3.5% in January to +2.8%.
"The stabilization of the growth rate of consumer prices - explains Istat - is mainly due to the easing of tensions on the prices of food goods, both unprocessed and processed, the effects of which compensate for the weakening of the deflationary pressures coming from the energy goods".
More specifically, the prices of unprocessed food (from +7.5% to +4.4%) and processed food (from +4.5% to +3.4%) and of other goods (from +1.7%) slowed down. % to +1.2%), of transport-related services (from +4.2% to +3.8%), of recreational, cultural and personal care services (from +3.3% to +3 .2%) and housing-related services (from +2.8% to +2.7%).
On the other hand, the decline in the prices of unregulated (from -20.4% to -17.2%) and regulated (from -20.6% to -18.4%) energy prices slowed down and those of tobacco accelerated (from -20.6% to -18.4%) +2.2% to +2.6%) and communications-related services (from +0.2% to +0.8%).
The trend dynamics of the prices of goods accentuates its decline (from -0.7% to -0.9%), while that of services remains stable (at +2.9%), bringing the inflationary differential between the services sector and that of goods equal to +3.8 percentage points, from +3.6 in January.
The harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) recorded zero cyclical variation and a trend increase of 0.8% (the preliminary estimate was +0.9%), slightly decreasing from +0.9% in January.
The national consumer price index for families of workers and employees (FOI), net of tobacco, recorded no cyclical change and an increase on an annual basis of 0.7%.
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