ROME, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Price increases in Italy slowed in September, dipping below 1.0 percent after two consecutive months above that threshold, government data released Monday showed.
According to preliminary data from ISTAT, Italy's National Statistics Institute, prices in September were 0.7 percent above their level from a year earlier. That compares to annualized increases of 1.3 percent in July and 1.1 percent in August.
Before July, Italy's inflation rate stayed below 1.0 percent for six of the previous seven months among the lowest rates in the European Union as well as the 20-nation euro currency zone.
ISTAT said the main factors holding price increases down involved energy, with regulated energy prices 10 percent above their levels in Sept. 2023, compared to a 14.3 percent annualized increase in August, while unregulated energy prices were 11.0 percent lower than a year earlier, a bigger drop than the 8.6-percent decrease from a month earlier.
Following the trend showing a slowdown in energy prices, transportation costs rose by 2.5 percent compared to a year-on-year rise of 2.9 percent in August.
