Business confidence rose to 90,9 in July from 88,2 in June. This was communicated by Istat, pointing out that the index increase is the synthesis of increases in the confidence of companies in market services, construction, retail trade and the slight decrease in confidence in manufacturing companies. The manufacturing business confidence climate index fell to 99,7 from 99,9 in June. Production expectations improve (the balance from 6 to 8), but assessments on order books worsen (from -21 to -23); the balance relating to assessments on inventories remains stable at 0.
The analysis of the climate of confidence by main groupings of industries (Rpi) - informs Istat - indicates an improvement in the indicator for consumer goods (from 98,0 to 98,2) and a worsening for intermediate goods ( from 103,0 to 102,2) and for capital goods (from 98,2 to 97,3). The construction business confidence climate index rises to 83,2 from 81,6 in June. Employment expectations improve (from -22 to -14), but assessments on construction orders and/or plans worsen (from -44 to -45). The confidence climate index for services businesses rises to 92,5 from 88,1 in June. Assessments and expectations on order books grow (from -16 to -5 and from -10 to -7, the respective balances), while expectations on the trend of the economy in general decrease, going from -19 to -23. In the retail trade, the confidence climate index rose to 101,8 from 101,4 in June. The index confirmed the values of the previous month both in large-scale distribution (at 101,0) and in the traditional one (at 102,7).
