Inflation rate down to 0.4% in February

(ANSA) - Rome, February 28 - Italy's annual inflation rate for February was 0.4%, down from 0.5% in January, according to a preliminary estimate released by ISTAT on Friday. "The slowdown of the growth on annual basis of all-items index was mainly due to the deceleration of prices of non-regulated energy products (from +3.2% to +1.2%), of services related to transport (from +2.6% to +1.5%) and, to a lesser extent, of tobacco (from +2.9% to 1.5%) and unprocessed food (from +0.8% to +0.2%)," the national statistics agency said.