Italian consumer prices fell in 2016, the first year of deflation since 1959, official data published Wednesday showed, AFP reported. Prices slipped by 0.1% last year from 2015, according to provisional figures from the national statistics institute Istat. Italian consumer prices already showed their weakest increase in decades in 2015, rising by just 0.1%. Although inflation went negative in 2016, there was a pickup in prices towards the end of the year. In November they rose by 0.1% year-on-year and in December by 0.5%0, surprising analysts who had been expecting 0.3%. In November, Istat said it expected zero inflation in 2016 and 1% in 2017. Analysts at Intesa Sanpaolo said, however, that they do not expect price rises to exceed 0.8% this year. Meanwhile, Italy’s deflation shows a “dramatic situation” and highlights the need for a “change of pace” in government policy, consumer groups Federconsumatori and Adusbef said Wednesday. “We need investments to relaunch jobs and controls on price hikes,” they said.
