Italian consumer and business sentiment indices deteriorate in August

Italian consumer confidence index deteriorated in August. The index fell to 111.9 from July’s 113.3. The deteriorating sentiment was spread throughout all its components, especially, the economic one decreased from 129.6 to 127.8. The personal index dropped to 107 from 108, whereas the current and future indices dropped to 110 and 115.4, respectively.

With regard to the business sentiment climate, the related index dropped to 98.9 from 101.2. The confidence index in manufacturing dropped to 99.7 from 100.1. More specifically, assessments on order books go better, while expectations on production changed for the worse. As regards to the assessments on inventories, the related balance passed to 4.1.

The sentiment index in construction dropped to 140.4 from 142.8. Assessments on order books/construction dropped to -15.3 from 11.9 while the employment expectations stayed essentially stable.

The market services sentiment index dropped to 97.4 from 100. All its components dropped. Meanwhile, the retail trade confidence index stayed almost the same, moving from 110 to 109. With regard to the variables composing the index, the opinions on current sales continued to rebound while the expectations on the future ones deteriorated. The retail trade sentiment index rebounded a bit in the large scale distribution, passing to 112.3 but dropped in the small and medium scale one to 100.9.