Consumer and business confidence - January 2026

In January 2026, the consumer confidence index rose slightly from 96.6 to 96.8. The improvement affected all components except one: the future climate rose from 91.6 to 92.3, the economic climate increased from 97.0 to 97.4 and the personal one moved from 96.4 to 96.6, while the current climate remained essentially stable (from 100.2 to 100.1).

About the business confidence climate, the index (IESI, Istat Economic Sentiment Indicator) increased from 96.6 to 97.6. 

The manufacturing confidence climate increased from 88.5 to 89.2. Regarding the components of the confidence index, assessments on order books and expectations for production levels improved, while an accumulation of stocks emerged (the balances of the variables moved from -20.2 to -17.9, from 2.8 to 3.2 and from 1.6 to 2.1, respectively).

The construction confidence climate decreased for the third month in a row, passing from 101.0 to 99.8. In terms of components, assessments on order books worsened (the balance passed from -1.9 to -4.3), while labour market expectations remained stable (the related balance at 4.1).

The market service confidence climate improved from 100.2 to 103.4. All components showed a marked progress: the balance of opinions on business current trend rose from 7.6 to 11.2, and those regarding assessments and expectations on order book level increased from 5.9 to 10.1 and from 7.3 to 9.9, respectively.

The retail trade confidence climate diminished from 106.9 to 102.5. In particular, the worsening was due to decreasing assessments and expectations on the business trend, while the level of inventories slightly increased (the balances of the variables varied from 19.4 to 12.4, from 29.6 to 23.0 and from 6.7 to 7.3, respectively). 

Starting from the January 2026 survey, please note that some questions have been removed from the survey questionnaires to rationalise the information provided and reduce the burden on respondents. Consequently, the corresponding variables will no longer be released starting from the publication of data referring to January 2026. For further details, please refer to the ‘Data dissemination’ section of the Methodological Note (on pg. 12).