According to Istat (the Italian statistics institute), overall production prices for April rose just 0.6% on a monthly basis, which translates as 3.4% annually, the lowest annual growth since May 2005.

Year-on-year consumer goods prices increased 1.9%, equipment 2.4% and energy prices 0.8% in April. The most significant increases for the first four months of 2007 were seen in the intermediates sector including leather (0.7%) and chemical products and synthetic fibres industries (0.4%).