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IT: Business and Consumer Confidence
| Actual | Previous | Revised | |
| Business Confidence | 95.6 | 95.2 | 95.3 |
| Manufacturing Confidence | 89.6 | 88.4 | 88.6 |
| Consumer Confidence | 94.2 | 92.4 |
Highlights
Italy’s consumer confidence recovered from 92.4 to 94.2 in July 2026, with improvement across every component and the strongest increase occurring in perceptions of the wider economy. This broad rise may support household spending, although confidence remained below its recent stronger levels.
Business sentiment improved only marginally, from 95.3 to 95.6, concealing substantial sectoral differences. Manufacturing strengthened as order-book assessments and production expectations improved. However, rising inventories suggest that production may be advancing faster than sales.
Construction provided the clearest warning, with confidence falling sharply from 101.6 to 96.8 amid weaker orders and employment expectations. Services reported stronger current activity but lower expected orders, while retailers became considerably more optimistic about future business despite weaker present sales and accumulating stocks.
Indeed, July’s figures present an economy whose expectations are improving faster than realised demand. Consumer optimism and manufacturing resilience offer grounds for cautious confidence, but construction weakness, softer forward orders and inventory accumulation indicate that the recovery remains fragile and uneven.