La war makes them Italian companies more pessimistic on the future of the economy. From the survey conducted by Bank of Italy in recent days, straddling the outbreak of the conflict in Persian Gulf, "a marked deterioration in companies' assessments of the evolution of the macroeconomic framework" emerges. Compared to the previous survey, "the judgements on the general economic situation they have worsened in all sectors, as well as the outlook for its operating conditions. The latter are particularly affected by the increase in energy commodity prices and economic and political uncertainty.
Bank of Italy survey, inflation and growth: the picture
The total demand, we read in thesurvey “it has weakened in all sectors; industry in the strict sense also recorded a worsening in the foreign componentFor the next three months, companies' expectations for overall sales remain positive, despite a decline in export prospects. Investment conditions also signal a marked deterioration, exacerbated by the outbreak of war.
However, i investment plans for 2026 are substantially unchanged compared to what was forecast in the previous survey, except for a moderate decline in industry in the strict sense. Finally, according to the questionnaire distributed among companies, "the adoption of theartificial intelligence In Italian companies, at the beginning of 2026, it is still moderate, with more widespread use in large companies and in the service sector. The main barriers to the adoption or more extensive use of this technology would arise from the lack of adequate skills and the perception of the limited applicability of AI to the specific activity of their company.
Bank of Italy survey, business forecasts
Italian companies foresee a reduction of its margins over the next twelve months arising from rising production costs and only a moderate increase in price lists. This is further evidenced by the Bank of Italy's survey according to which prices practiced in the last 12 months are grown up at a substantially similar pace to the previous survey; in the next 12 months, price lists are expected to increase moderately, despite expectations of higher production costs, foreshadowing a reduction in margins. Expectations on theinflation consumer spending continues to remain below 2 percent across all time horizons.
