• Istat: Italy GDP, third quarter + 0.1%: annual + 0.3%
  • Work, Istat: in three months lost 60 thousand employees

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December 06, 2019At October 2019, for retail sales, an economic decrease of 0.2% is estimated, both in value and in volume. This was revealed by Istat, explaining that the decrease concerns in particular non-food goods (-0.5% in value and -0.4% in volume), while for food goods there was a moderate increase (+0.1 % in value and + 0.2% in volume). On a trend basis, in October there was an overall growth of 1% in value and 0.8% in volume. Sales of food products increased (+ 1.3% in value and + 0.6% in volume) as did non-food goods.

Minus sign for stationery, books and drugs
For non-food goods, there was a 0.7% increase in value and 1% in volume compared to October 2018. Positive trend changes were recorded for almost all product groups, with the exception of stationery, books, newspapers and magazines (-1.6%), pharmaceutical products (-1.6%), photo-optics and films, magnetic media, instruments music (-1.5%).

Computer science flies
The largest increases concern IT, telecommunications, telephony (+ 2.7%) and games, toys, sports and camping (+ 2.4%).

Supermarkets beat small shops
Compared to October 2018, the value of retail sales increased by 1.8% for large retailers and decreased by 0.8% for companies operating on small surfaces.

The electronics business is growing
Instead, e-commerce is always growing (+ 16.6%). In the first nine months of 2019, compared to the same period last year, the collection of large-scale distribution increased (+ 1.3%) while that of trade in small-sized areas fell (-0.5%). For e-commerce, progress in the first few months of the year compared to the same period in 2018 is 17.5%.

The data for the quarter
In the August-October 2019 quarter, compared to the previous quarter, retail sales increased by 0.1% both in value and in volume. Growth is limited to non-food items (+ 0.3% in value and volume) while food goods sales are down (-0.1% in value and -0.3% in volume).

An economic weakness remains
Istat underlines that a phase of weak economy continues but in the third quarter there are positive signs on consumption and income. The confidence climate, in November, showed a downturn for consumers and a marginal improvement for companies, remaining however at levels lower than the average of 2018. The values ​​of the leading indicator suggest the continuation of the weak phase of activity levels economic. This can be read in the monthly statement on the performance of the Italian Istat economy, which highlights that in the third quarter "the weakness of the Italian economy started in 2018 continued". The gross domestic product, expressed in chained values ​​with the reference year 2015, adjusted for calendar effects and seasonally adjusted, increased by 0.1% on a short-term basis.

Confidence linked to the labor market
After the phase of stagnation in the first part of the year - we read - household spending on the economic territory marked a significant economic increase between July and September. The favorable evolution of consumption and incomes was accompanied by still positive signals coming from the labor market.