Consumer and business confidence - November 2021

In November 2021, the overall consumer confidence index lowered from 118.4 to 117.5. Compared to the previous survey, the future consumer climate worsened from 125.4 to 121.0, the economic climate diminished from 142.2 to 139.8 the personal one slipped from 110.4 to 110.0 and, finally, the current climate improved from 113.7 to 115.2.

As for the business confidence climate, the index (IESI, Istat Economic Sentiment Indicator) remained practically unchanged passing from 115.0 to 115.1.

The confidence climate in manufacturing improved from 115.1 to 116.0. The underlying components of the index showed an improvement in both the assessments on order books and the expectations on future production (from 9.2 to 10.1, from 16.8 to 19.8, respectively). Also inventories were considered to have increased (the related balance, in fact, passed from -2.3 to -1.1)

The confidence index in construction decreased from 159.2 to 157.4. Among the confidence climate building variables, the assessments on order books/construction plans remained basically unchanged (the balance varied from 2.2 to 2.1) and the expectations on employment worsened (the balance went down from 8.1 to 5.9).

The market services confidence index weakened from 112.1 to 111.3. Particularly, respondents gave a less favourable opinion on both the order books and the current business trend (the balances of the variables decreased from 18.0 to 14.7 and from 18.1 to 9.8, respectively). By contrast, they became rather optimistic about the future development of the order books and, as a consequence, the balance of the variable rose significantly passing from 12.5 to 21.8.

The retail trade confidence index increased from 105.4 to 106.8. Both the opinions and the expectations on business trend improved again, while the stock level was judged to have a reduction. In particular, the balances of the variable index components went from 8.2 to 11.2 the first, from 15.7 to 16.1 the second and from 0.4 to -0.6 the third. The improvement in confidence was common to both distribution channels: the index grew from 108.0 to 109.1 in the large scale distribution and from 100.8 to 101.7 in the small and medium scale one.