After the nightmarish data on production, another freezing shower comes for the Italian industry. According to the estimates communicated by Istat on Friday morning, in March the turnover e the orders of the secondary sector have fallen by more than a quarter since February: respectively -25,8 e -26,5%. The fall is clearly due to the start of the closures aimed at containing the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the impact of which will be felt even more violently on the April data, not yet available.
In detail, corrected for calendar effects (there were 22 working days against 21 in the same month in 2019), the turnover total Italian industry it fell 25,2% year-on-year in March. The slide was heavier on the domestic market (-27,6%) than on the foreign one (-20,7%).
As it regards instead orders, still in the yearly comparison the raw index fell by 26,6%. Once again the decline was more marked on the domestic market (-29,3%) than on the foreign market (-23,1%).
Average of first quarter of 2020, the overall index records a cyclical drop of 6,6% for turnover and 9,5% for orders.
Among the individual sectors, the only plus sign in the annual comparison is thatpharmaceutical industry (+19,5%). On the other side of the table, the worst result is that of the video industry means of transport (-55,4%).
The statistical institute notes that the collapse of turnover and orders on an annual basis has already reached values similar to those recorded in the most acute moment of the 2008-2009 crisis.
In March, writes Istat in its commentary on the numbers, “the conditions of demand and the measures to contain the Covid-19 epidemic led to a sharp decline in the turnover and orders of Italian industry. Since Italy was the first country affected by the epidemic in Europe, the contraction of the domestic market was much more accentuated than the foreign one".
