Consumer price sprint: in October +5,4%. Shopping basket slower, +2,5%

Price fever is rising. According to the preliminary estimates of Istat, in October the national consumer price index (covering all products and services) indicates a change of +5,4% year-on-year, from +4,2% in the previous month, at the hyperinflationary levels of August 2023.

The shopping basket (food and products for household and personal care) accelerates from +1,5% to +2,5%, but remains at less than half the rate of overall inflation. However, products purchased with high frequency (food and beverages, tobacco, rent, household cleaning products, fuel) are at their peak: from +5,2% to +5,8%.
The overall acceleration in prices is mainly affected by the increase in energy product prices (from +22,6% to +31,4%), still influenced by the international geopolitical situation.
The increase in inflation is also partly due to the food sector, especially the component of unprocessed products (from +5,5% to +7,5%), and to certain types of services, particularly those relating to transport (from +1,6% to +3,1%).
The picture varies across the main European countries: in Spain consumer prices remain at +4,9% year-on-year and in France they rise to +3,4%.

Fixed-term protection

According to Carlo Alberto Buttarelli, president of Federdistribuzione, “the economic situation remains characterised by strong uncertainty, aggravated by international tensions. The significant increase in energy and fuel costs has taken on an importance that deserves the utmost attention, since its dynamics affect families and businesses and risk transferring further cost pressures throughout the entire production chain, from agriculture to the processing industry and finally to distribution.
This is compounded by the effects of the recent [[ARTW_HTMLOPEN_AAAA]road haulage strike in southern Italy, which generated losses of tens of millions of euros for modern distribution companies, costs that the sector absorbed without an immediate impact on consumer prices”.

Buttarelli then focuses on the modern distribution channel, where “the current level of inflation is significantly lower than the figure recorded by the Istat shopping basket, and highlights how, despite the increase in energy costs, modern retail companies continue to shoulder a significant portion of the additional costs in order to mitigate their effects on families as much as possible, protecting their purchasing power with an affordable and accessible offering. This is an effort that will hardly be able to continue for long”.

Other articles:
In September, prices of 4,2% soar. Confcommercio: less purchasing power at the end of the year

Retail sales, in 2025 volumes -0,6%. E-commerce accelerates, +2,9% in value

This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.