The confidence of consumers and companies is growing in Italy. According to data released this morning byIstat, to score the most spectacular leap is the business confidence climate index, which reached 103,0 points in March, from 97,5 in February, reaching its highest level since July 2008.
The improvement regards all the main sectors: manufacturing (to 103,7 from 100,5), construction (to 116,0 from 108,5), market services (to 108,1 from 100,4) and retail trade ( to 103,0 from 101,0). In manufacturing companies, both the assessments on order books improve (to -11 from -17) and production expectations (to 10 from 8), while the balance of assessments on inventories passes from 3 to 4.
In construction, both assessments on construction orders and/or plans improve, as well as – albeit slightly – expectations on employment (the balances to -36 from -45 and -11 from -12). In service businesses, assessments and expectations on order books improve (the respective balances go from -2 to 1 and -4 to 1) as do expectations on the general economic trend (from 17 to 2). In the retail trade, assessments on current sales worsen (to -5 from 1), while expectations on future sales improve (to 28 from 19).
For the climate of confidence among consumers, however, the index calculated by Istat rose this month to 110,9 points, from 107,7 in February. In particular, the economic component increased more consistently (to 144,8 from 138,1) than the personal component, which rose to 99,7 from 98,0.
Consumers' assessments on the country's current economic situation improve (to -57 from -71) and future expectations on the economy are also slightly higher (to 22 from 21). The balance of judgments on the dynamics of consumer prices in the last 12 months shows a slight improvement to -26 from -27 and that of expectations for the next 12 months confirms this trend (to -28 from -33). Unemployment expectations also improved (to -3 from 10).
