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IT: Business and Consumer Confidence
| Consensus | Consensus Range | Actual | Previous | Revised | |
| Business Confidence | 96.1 | 94.3 | 94.4 | ||
| Manufacturing Confidence | 89.6 | 88.3 | 88.4 | ||
| Consumer Confidence | 97.8 | 97.6 to 98.1 | 95.0 | 97.6 |
Highlights
Manufacturing confidence rose to 89.6 in November, while overall business sentiment rose to 96.1. Consumer confidence decreased to 95.0 from both the consensus and October. This reflects a decline in consumer views about their household finances and the economic climate.
Overall business sentiment rose to 96.1 in November from 94.4 in October. Confidence in the manufacturing sector rose to 89.6 from a revised 88.4 in October with improvement in order books and expectations of future volume of production.
Retailers' confidence increased to 107.3 in November from 105.2 in October. This improvement was due to a rise in expected sales volume and a reduction in stock.
Service industry confidence also improved, rising to 97.7 in November from 95.1 in October. This was due to improved outlook for order books and current business trends.
Overall, business confidence and manufacturing confidence show resilience despite the ill effects of US tariffs on Europe. Consumer confidence however is in decline. These latest updates take the RPI to minus 18 and the RPI-P to minus 6, indicating that the real economy is performing within market expectations.
Market Consensus Before Announcement
Consumer confidence seen a little firmer at 97.8 versus 97.6 a month ago.
Definition
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.
Description
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.