Consumer and business confidence - April 2026

In April, the consumer confidence climate declined further from 92.6 to 90.8. Once again, pessimism is widespread across all components: the economic climate plummeted from 88.1 to 82.7, the future component fell from 85.3 to 82.5, the current one decreased from 98.0 to 96.9, and finally the personal one slipped from 94.2 to 93.8.

Regarding the business confidence climate, the index (IESI, Istat Economic Sentiment Indicator) eased from 97.3 to 95.2. 

The manufacturing confidence climate declined from 88.7 to 87.9. Both assessments on order books and expectations on production level worsened (the balances of the variables decreased from -17.8 to -19.4 and from 1.4 to 0.7, respectively), while stocks were considered unchanged (the related balance remained stable at 2.2).

The construction confidence climate weakened from 103.6 to 100.9. Firms expressed greater pessimism regarding both their assessments on order books and their expectations on employment (the balance of the first variable fell from -1.2 to -4.3, while the second one decreased from 8.6 to 6.2).

The market services confidence climate worsened from 102.6 to 99.1. Surveyed firms were concerned about current order book level (the balance of the variable fell from 9.1 to 4.8). Furthermore, both assessments on current business trend and expectations on order book level declined markedly (the related balances deteriorated, in fact, from 11.0 to 7.0 the first and from 8.4 to 5.5, the second one).

The retail trade confidence climate rose marginally from 100.5 to 100.8. More specifically, the improvement was driven by a rise in positive assessments on current business trend, whereas a further deterioration was observed in expectations on future sales (the balances of the variables moved from 8.0 to 12.1 and from 20.2 to 17.1, respectively). Lastly, the volume of stocks remained stable (at 6.4).