Italian business confidence rose sharply in the final month of the year with a closely watched index jumping to 107.2 from an upwardly revised 103.5 (originally reported at 103.4).

Consumer confidence recorded a remarkable gain, jumping to 106.7 from 103.6 in November. Manufacturing sentiment fell slightly to 95.4 from 96.6.

The latest Italian data, coupled with better than expected French survey data, suggest that the Eurozone economy may have stabilised at the end of 2023.

The latest data leave the Italian RPI at 2 and the RPI-P at 33.

The Italian statistics office (Istat) conducts business and consumer confidence surveys over the first fifteen and ten working days of each reference month respectively. These provide information about current and expected developments in key sector variables. The largely qualitative results are synthesized for each survey into a single number that provides an overall measure of sentiment. Business confidence reflects the combined results of separate surveys covering manufacturing, retail, construction and services.

If investors want to know how the business or consumer sectors are performing as they evaluate their investment decisions, they can find timely and in depth information in the latest Istat surveys. Although short-term swings can be erratic, changes in trends in confidence can contain very useful information about a sector’s underlying health well in advance of the release of the official data. Moreover, by including some forward-looking components (e.g. manufacturing orders or consumer buying intentions) the Istat surveys can also provide a potential insight into prospective developments.