Italy's annual inflation rate rose to 3.2% in May says Istat

Italy's annual inflation rate climbed

to 3.2% in May from 2.7% in April, amid the energy-price shock

linked to the Iran war, Istat said on Tuesday, confirming the

preliminary estimate it gave at the end of last month.

The national statistics agency added that its consumer-price

index was up 0.4% in month-on-month terms.

"The acceleration of inflation was mainly due to the dynamics of

prices of non-regulated energy products (from +9.6% to +12.5%),

of regulated energy products (from +5.3% to +5.6%), of services

related to transport (from +0.6% to +1.7%) and of services

related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from

+2.6% to +3.0%)." Istat said.

It said core inflation, excluding energy and unprocessed food,

rose to 1.7% from from 1.6%, and inflation excluding energy went

up to 2.1% from 1.9%.

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