In July 2022, the consumer confidence index worsened from 98.3 to 94.8. The deterioration was registered, in particular, for the economic and the future indices which passed from 93.9 to 84.9 and from 98.8 to 92.9, respectively. As for the other components, the personal climate went down from 99.8 to 98.1 and the current one from 97.9 to 96.1.
Regarding the business confidence climate, the index (IESI, Istat Economic Sentiment Indicator) deteriorated from 113.4 to 110.8.
The confidence climate in manufacturing decreased from 109.5 to 106.7. More specifically, unfavourable signals came from assessments on order books and, to a lesser extent, from expectations on the future production (the balances of the variables went down, in fact, from 6.3 to -0.3, the first and from 7.7 to 5.4, the second). Finally, the survey participants considered inventories to have decreased (from 1.7 to 0.9 the related balance).
The confidence index in construction improved from 159.7 to 164.4 thanks to a rise in both the assessments on order books/construction and the expectations on employment (the balance of the variables passed from 5.3 to 7.1 and from 5.6 to 10.1, respectively).
The market services confidence got worse from 109.0 to 104.1. Firms indicated a worsening in all the confidence-building variables. In fact, the respondents were pessimistic with respect to the current order books, the current business trend and the future order books. As a consequence, the balances of the variables dropped from 13.1 to 8.5, from 14.5 to 9.1 and from 11.5 to 6.3, respectively.
The retail trade confidence index rose from 107.2 to 108.1. In particular, the improvement was due to the expectations on future sales (the related balances went up from 13.6 to 19.4) while the assessments on the current business trend worsened again (from 13.3 to 12.1 the related balance) and the inventories are assessed to be increasing (from -2.3 to -0.4 the balance).