In April 2024, the consumer confidence index eased from 96.5 to 95.2. Looking at its components, the worsening in confidence was not widespread: indeed the future confidence climate decreased from 97.2 to 93.9, the economic one worsened from 101.9 to 99.4, the personal one weakened from 94.6 to 93.7, while the current one slightly improved from 96.0 to 96.2.
With reference to the business confidence climate, the index (IESI, Istat Economic Sentiment Indicator) declined from 97.0 to 95.8.
The confidence climate in manufacturing slipped from 88.4 to 87.6. In particular, the worsening was due to decreasing assessments on order books and to deteriorated expectations on production, while the level of inventories was getting slightly thinner (the related balances varied from -17.1 to -19.7, from 1.0 to 0.5 and from 3.2 to 2.9, respectively).
The confidence climate in construction decreased from 105.7 to 103.4. Among confidence-building variables, unfavourable signals came from both assessments on order books/construction (the related balance reduced from 1.9 to 0.9) and expectations on employment (the balance of the variable diminished from 9.8 to 6.2).
The market services confidence climate fell from 100.7 to 99.5. More specifically, the balance referring to assessments on order books sank from 8.7 to 4.8, the one concerning assessments on business trend increased from 9.9 to 10.2 and, finally, the one of expectations on order books remained stable at 3.8.
The retail trade confidence index regressed from 104.5 to 103.0. Negative developments were mainly due to the worsening in business activity expectations, while the view on current sales improved again and inventories built up (the balances of the variables passed from 24.4 to 19.8, from 16.4 to 17.2 and from 6.0 to 7.2, respectively).