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IT: Business and Consumer Confidence
| Consensus | Consensus Range | Actual | Previous | Revised | |
| Business Confidence | 95.2 | 94.1 | 94.2 | ||
| Manufacturing Confidence | 88.5 | 87.4 to 88.5 | 88.4 | 87.9 | |
| Consumer Confidence | 93.0 | 93.0 to 94.4 | 92.4 | 93.4 |
Highlights
Consumer confidence waned in June, falling to 92.4 from 93.4 in May, coming in below the median of 93.0 of an Econoday survey of economists' forecasts. Even with the decline, consumers were more positive on both the economic and future outlook. Weighing on sentiment was a drop in both the current and personal outlook.
Businesses on the other hand were more optimistic, with the confidence reading climbing to 95.2 in June from 94.2 in May. The manufacturing sub-component also improved, rising to 88.4 from 87.9 in May and beating the Econoday median of 88.5.
Other business sectors were also positive, with construction improving to 101. From 99.4, and services increasing to 97.2 from 96.8. Retailers saw a significant gain in sentiment, rising to 105.5 from 101.3.
While the conflict in the Middle East continues despite the cease-fire, so far, a broader flareup conflict seems to have been contained for the time being.
Market Consensus Before Announcement
Manufacturing business confidence expected up to 88.5 in June from 87.9 in May. Consumer confidence seen at 93.0 versus 93.4.
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.