(Bloomberg) -- Italy’s inflation rate dropped to a 14-month low in June, offering limited reassurance to the European Central Bank about weakening cost pressures before data for the region as a whole later this week.

Consumer prices rose 6.7% from a year earlier, considerably lower than May’s increase of 8%, according to a report from Italy’s statistics institute released on Wednesday. Slowing utility price gains and cheaper transport costs helped push the overall pace down. 

The data from the region’s third-biggest economy set the scene for two further days of European releases likely to show broad but limited progress in bringing inflation rates lower. With Italy’s number well above its 2% target, the ECB is unlikely to see room for complacency. 

Most concerning for officials will be a possible acceleration in underlying price growth anticipated for Friday’s report for the euro zone. Their worry is that inflation will become entrenched in the economy through wage demands. 

ECB President Christine Lagarde, speaking at an annual retreat on Tuesday with her colleagues, signaled that she’s taking no chances.

“While we do not currently see a wage-price spiral or a de-anchoring of expectations, the longer inflation remains above target, the greater such risks become,” she said. “Barring a material change to the outlook, we will continue to increase rates in July.”

That prospect of further tightening sparked immediate criticism from Italy’s two deputy prime ministers, who are each leaders of parties in premier Giorgia Meloni’s coalition. Most scathing was Matteo Salvini, who said the ECB’s policy is “nonsense and dangerous.” 

Meloni herself joined in on Wednesday, describing the central bank’s actions as “simplistic.” 

Such remarks point to Italy’s quandary at the current juncture. Persistently high prices of staples like pasta, tomatoes and olive oil are a headache for the government, which has been slowly phasing out aid measures for families and businesses hit by the energy crisis. 

But higher borrowing costs to curb inflation weigh on the country’s stretched public finances, hurting consumers both as borrowers and taxpayers, while impacting growth. Italy’s main business association warned earlier this week that the economy is showing signs of waning momentum.

Further illustrating the euro-zone picture will be releases on Thursday that are likely to show drastic divergence. 

Spanish inflation probably slowed to below the ECB’s 2% target, according to economists’ predictions, while Germany’s measure may well have accelerated because of the comparison with last year, when ultra-cheap public travel was unveiled there.

On Friday, French consumer price growth is also expected to have slowed. Economists’ forecasts point to a weakening in the overall euro-zone inflation number along with a pickup in the so-called core measure that strips out volatile elements such as energy.

--With assistance from Giovanni Salzano and Joel Rinneby.

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