Overall, business confidence fell in July. At 93.6, the Istat gauge is down from June's unrevised 93.9, with manufacturing confidence rising from 87.3 to 87.8.

Meanwhile, retail trade confidence showed an increase from 102.0 to 105.8 due to the growth in large-scale distribution. The service climate fell from 95.5 to 93.7 due to declines in the current business trend and order book volume. Construction confidence also fell, from 103.4 to 102.4, with expectations for future employment declining.

Consumer confidence rose from 96.1 in June to 97.2 and exceeding economists' median expectations expectations of 96.1, due to growth in several components, including current and future personal situation. Meanwhile, the economic climate worsened.

In summary, the report suggests potential growth across manufacturing activity this month.

Confidence seen flat at 96.1 in July from June.

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.