L'Euro Ha Creato Inflazione? Changeover E Arrotondamenti Dei Prezzi Al Consumo in Italia Nel 2002. (Has the Euro Caused Inflation? The Changeover and Consumer Price Rounding in Italy in 2002)

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the specific impact of the introduction of the euro on Italian consumer inflation that can be attributed solely to the rounding of prices to figures that are "attractive" in euro. The empirical analysis is based on a large sub-set of prices used by Istat to calculate the general consumer price index for Italy. Between January and October 2002 the general consumer price index rose 2.4%; the impact of rounding on the general consumer price index in Italy amounted to between 0.3 and 0.9 percentage points, depending on the method of estimation used. With reference to the average rise in the general consumer price index of 2.5% in 2002, the impact on average annual consumer price inflation in 2002 lies between 0.1 and 0.5 percentage points. The changeover apparently worked its effect mainly through products sold by traditional retail channels