Istat: business and household confidence at pre-Covid levels

 The consumer confidence index "is approaching the February 2020 level, signaling a complete recovery from the fall due to the health emergency", according to Istat data from May.

The business climate "accelerates strongly compared to the positive trend underway since December 2020, reaching the highest level since February 2018".

The improvement is "more marked" for market services.

    The consumer index rose from 102.3 points to 110.6, with an improvement in all the components starting from the opinions on the country's economic situation, while the composite index of companies ran from 97.9 to 106.7. 

For consumers, Istat "highlights the upward leap in the economic climate (from 91.6 to 116.2) and in the future (from 109.6 to 122.5); the personal and current climate record smaller increases (from 105.9 to 108.7 and from 97.4 to 102.6, respectively) ". And also for companies, the progress is spread to all the sectors observed. In particular, in the manufacturing industry the index rises from 106.0 to 110.2 and in construction from 148.5 to 153.9. In market services there is a "marked increase" in the index which rises from 87.6 to 98.4, while in the retail trade the increase is less large (from 96.0 to 99.3). In the manufacturing and construction industries, all components of the confidence index improve. The note "reports a clear growth in confidence in the capital goods and consumer goods sectors in the manufacturing sector; with regard to construction, the improvement in confidence is most marked in the sector of specialized construction works. "As for market services, the balances of all the components of the index are" up sharply ".

"Confidence improves significantly - continues the text - in the tourism sector and in the transport and warehousing sector. In the retail trade, both judgments and expectations on sales improve while stocks are judged to be accumulating. distribution networks, the improvement in confidence is widespread in both components but with different intensities: in large-scale distribution the increase is moderate (the index rises from 101.4 to 102.6) while in traditional distribution it is pronounced (the index passes from 83.1 to 92.1) ".