Istat, coronavirus effect: business confidence collapses, at least since 2013

2020-03-27T09:18:29.194Z

Coronavirus effect in March on the consumer and business confidence index, both sharply decreasing. Istat points out this, explaining that the former goes from 110.9 to 101, while the composite index of business confidence from 97.8 to 81.7. The institute underlines that all the components of the climate of consumer confidence are in decline, but the intensity of the drop is marked above all for the economic and future climate while the personal and current climate record more contained decreases. In more detail, the economic climate goes from 121.9 to 96.2, the personal climate drops from 107.8 to 102.4, the current climate drops from 110.6 to 104.8 and the future climate decreases from 112, 0 to 94.8. "The health emergency and the consequent containment measures adopted by the Government to limit the contagion - notes Istat in the comment - have heavily influenced the climate of confidence of the economic operators (the data was collected between 2 and 13 March 2020), which in March reach particularly low levels for both businesses and consumers, reaching the values ​​recorded, respectively, in June 2013 and January 2015 ". Istat reports that all the components of consumer sentiment are decreasing, but the intensity of the drop is marked above all for the economic and future climate, while the personal and current climate show more moderate decreases. In more detail, the economic climate goes from 121.9 to 96.2, the personal climate drops from 107.8 to 102.4, the current climate drops from 110.6 to 104.8 and the future climate decreases from 112, 0 to 94.8 As regards businesses, the estimates of the Institute of Statistics show a very large drop in confidence especially in services (the index goes from 97.6 to 79.6), in the retail trade (from 106.9 to 97.4) and in manufacturing (from 98.8 to 89.5). In the construction sector, the confidence index declined significantly more from 142.3 to 139.0. "As regards the components of the confidence index, in the manufacturing industry - explained Istat - they are getting worse judgments on orders and inventories of finished products are judged to be a slight accumulation; production expectations undergo a drastic reduction. For constructions, the negative evolution of the index is determined by the worsening of judgments on orders and, above all, by the decrease of the expectations on employment at the company "." In market services - he continues - the sharp drop in the index is determined by expectations on orders which are falling sharply. As regards retail trade, sales assessments are slightly up, inventories are judged to be decumulating and sales expectations are falling sharply. At the distribution circuit level, sales judgments are improving both in large and traditional distribution; the drop in sales expectations is more contained in traditional distribution "