The encouraging trend continues for the Lombard economy, which has always been the driving force behind the national one, of which it produces around 20% of GDP. To reveal it is once again the Economy Booklet released by Assolombarda, which records a further slowdown. “After the slowdown at the end of 2018 – reads the research -, economic activity continues to be extremely weak also in the first part of 2019. While waiting for the final data, the anticipatory signs of the surveys on confidence show a worsening picture both for businesses and for consumers, both in our territory and in the Italian context".
ln particular, the manufacturing confidence in the North-West falls in April to the lowest since autumn 2014, with significant contractions in orders (foreign but above all domestic) and production expectations, with inventories in further accumulation in warehouses. The contraction also takes place in Italy and in the main European countries, Germany in primis where the index is confirmed below zero after more than two years of positive values.
Consumer confidence is below medium-term levels, in a clear downward trend both in the North-West and in Italy: the divergences between the two lines have, among other things, zeroed, thus highlighting that the contraction initially expressed by households in the Nord-Ovest is now common to the entire national territory.
In the first quarter 2019 the number of active businesses in Lombardy decreases slightly (-0,1% compared to a year before), steadily increasing after four years. Even here the decline in manufacturing activities did not stop.
