2018.08.3106:26:00UTC+00Italy Inflation Accelerates Unexpectedly In August

Italy's consumer price inflation accelerated unexpectedly in August, preliminary estimate from the statistical office Istat showed Friday.

Consumer prices climbed 1.7 percent year-over-year in August, faster than the 1.5 percent rise in July. Meanwhile, economists had expected the inflation to ease to 1.4 percent.

The acceleration of inflation was mainly due to prices of services related to transport, which grew 2.9 percent.

Core inflation that excludes energy and unprocessed food, rose to 0.9 percent in August from 0.7 percent in July.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices increased 0.5 percent in August, above the expected level of 0.3 percent.

The EU measure of inflation, based on the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices, slowed to 1.7 percent in August from 1.9 percent in the previous month. Meanwhile, the inflation was forecast to remain stable at 1.7 percent.

Month-over-month, the HICP edged down 0.1 percent in August, slower than the expected decrease of 0.2 percent.

Separately, the statistical office revealed that the unemployment rate dropped to 10.4 percent in July from 10.8 percent in June.

The number of unemployed fell by 4.0 percent on month to 2.70 million in July.