In a recent press release, Italy reports a notable increase in both consumer and business confidence for December 2023. Consumer confidence index rises from 103.6 to 106.7, while the composite indicator for business confidence climbs from 103.5 to 107.2.
Consumers are notably more optimistic, especially about the overall and future economic situations. Monthly indicators reveal substantial increases in economic and future climates, jumping from 111.0 to 118.6 and 109.3 to 113.5, respectively. Current and personal climates also show improvements, increasing from 99.8 to 102.2 and 101.2 to 102.8.
In the business sector, confidence improves across all sectors except for manufacturing. Specifically, there is a significant increase in market services, a moderate increase in construction and retail trade. However, manufacturing experiences a decline in confidence.
Breaking down the components of confidence indices, manufacturing sees stable assessments of orders and inventories compared to the previous month, coupled with a significant downturn in production expectations. In construction, all components are estimated to improve.
Market services exhibit a pronounced improvement in assessments of orders and business performance, with rising order expectations, though the increase is less substantial compared to assessments. In retail trade, a highly positive dynamic is estimated for sales assessments, while expectations decrease. This trend is attributed to large-scale distribution, with traditional distribution witnessing negative opinions on sales combined with an increase in expectations. Finished product inventories are judged to be in accumulation.