Italian consumer and business sentiment indices rise in May

The Italian consumer confidence index rebounded in May. According to Istat, the index rose to 111.8 from 110.6. The economic component of the index rose to 125.9 from 122.8, whereas the personal component rose to 107.4. The current and future components of the index rose to 109.6 and 115.8, respectively.

Meanwhile, the business confidence climate saw a rise to 100.2 in May from 98.8 in April. The manufacturing confidence index rose to 102 from 100.8. Assessments on order books and expectations on production rebounded. The balance of the former variable rose to -11.3 while the one of the latter variable rose to 5.9. As regards to the assessments on inventories, the related balance came at 3.6.

The construction sector’s sentient rose to 144.3 in May from April’s 141.2. Looking at details, the assessments on order books/construction plans rebounded to -14.9, whereas the unemployment expectations improved to 5.6.

The market services confidence index rose somewhat to 99.3. With reference to the variables composing the index, both assessments on order books and the ones on business trend deteriorated while the expectations on order books rose considerably.

The retail trade sentiment index rose to 102.6. Especially, assessments on current sales rebounded while expectations on the future ones worsened. Finally, as regards the assessments on volume of stocks, the relative balance passed to 9.8. The sentiment rebounded in the large scale distribution and in the small and medium scale one.

At 18:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Euro was slightly bearish at -52.3076 while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was bullish at 90.8839 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex