Consumer and business confidence - September 2024

In September 2024, the consumer confidence index grew from 96.1 to 98.3. The improvement in confidence was quite evenly spread across all its components: the current confidence climate improved from 96.3 to 99.0, the personal one from 93.8 to 96.3, the future one from 95.7 to 97.4 and, finally, the economic one from 102.3 to 103.9.

With reference to the business confidence climate, the index (IESI, Istat Economic Sentiment Indicator)bettered from 94.7 to 95.7.

The manufacturing confidence climate slipped from 87.0 to 86.7. The opinions on order books slightly worsened, while expectations on production were essentially stationary (the related balances, in fact, passed from -21.3 to -22.3 and from 1.0 to 1.1, respectively). As for inventories, the balance of the variable remained unchanged (3.5).

The construction confidence climate worsened from 103.3 to 101.9. Firms gave more negative opinions about both future employment (the related balance decreased from 6.4 to 5.7) and assessments on order books (the balance passed from 0.3 to -1.8).

The market service confidence climate rose from 98.0 to 100.6. Respondents expressed greater satisfaction with the current volume of both business activity and order books (the balance of the first variable progressed from 3.9 to 7.6, while the one of the second increased from 4.4 to 8.5). Small positive hints were reported also on the future volume of order books (the related balance went up from 5.5 to 5.9).

The retail trade confidence climate improved from 101.5 to 102.3. Compared to the previous month, the balance of current business activity significantly increased from 8.1 to 13.3, while the one of expectations on the future sales lowered from 25.2 to 23.3. Finally, inventories were considered to have slightly built up (the balance of the variable varied from 8.3 to 9.1).