The confidence of Italian companies is falling. In May, the relative index elaborated by Istat recorded a drop to 86,9 points, from 88,8 in April. The overall index was mainly dragged down by the drop in confidence among market services and construction firms.
As regards manufacturing companies, the climate of confidence remained stable at 99,7, despite the worsening of both assessments on order books (from -21 to -22) and production expectations (from 5 to 4); the balance relating to assessments on inventories passes from -1 to -3.
Looking, however, at the main groupings of industries (Rpi), the confidence indicator relating to intermediate goods grows (from 101,1 to 101,8) while that of consumer goods decreases (from 99,4 to 98,2) and of instrumental ones (from 99,9 to 99,7).
As mentioned, then, the index of the confidence climate of construction companies experienced a sharp drop, from 74,6 in April to 72,9. The confidence of service businesses also declined, from 91,2 to 87,4.
In the retail trade, the confidence climate index rose to 98,7 from 98,0 in April. The increase is a synthesis of the growth of trust in large-scale distribution and the decline of the traditional one.
