Italy's annual inflation rate dropped to 1.6% in May, down from 1.9% in April, Istat said on Monday.
    That was lower than the figure of 1.7% the national statistics agency had given in its preliminary estimate.
    Istat said its consumer price index was down 0.1% in month-on-month terms.
    "The decrease of the growth on annual basis of All-item index was mainly due to the prices of Regulated energy products (from +31.7% to +29.3%), of Non-regulated energy products (from -3.4% to -4.3%), of Unprocessed food (from +4.2% to +3.5%), of Services related to recreation, including repair and personal care (from +3.6% to +3.1%) and of Services related to transport (from +4.4% to +2.6%)," Istat said.
    But while the headline inflation figure was down, Istat said its shopping trolley index of the prices of food and household and personal care goods went up from 2.6% in April to 2.7% in May.
    It said core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) fell to 1.9% in May from 2.1% in April.

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