Italy, inflation at 5.4% and GDP flat: October's figures

Italian inflation in October 2026 rises to 5.4% year-on-year, from 4.2% in September, returning to its highest level since August 2023. This is reported by Il Sole 24 Ore and Investing.com, both based on data released by Istat (Il Sole 24 Ore; Investing.com). Both sources draw on the same statistical statement: the news currently stems from a single origin, Istat as the primary institutional source; no further independent confirmation is available at the time of publication.

Driving the index is above all energy: prices for energy goods show a 31.4% year-on-year increase, a sharp acceleration from the 22.6% recorded in September. This is the component that, in Istat’s surveys, weighs most heavily on the overall change in the consumer price index.

On the growth front, Italian GDP for the third quarter is unchanged from the previous quarter, seasonally adjusted, following the +0.2% recorded in the second quarter. The combination of accelerating prices and stalled output forms, in the data published the same day, a picture that economic observers describe as stagnation with high inflation.

The comparison with the other two main eurozone countries frames Italy’s position: in the flash estimates released on the same day, France records inflation at 3.4% and Spain at 4.9%, both below the Italian figure. Here too, the flash estimates are institutional data (Eurostat/national statistical institutes) picked up by the press, not independent multiple sources.

The inflation differential between Italy and France on consumer prices thus reaches a full two percentage points, the widest among the figures published in October for the three countries.