Italy Consumer Confidence, Business Morale Weakens In November

(RTTNews) - Italy's consumer confidence decreased further in November to the lowest level in three months, while composite business confidence weakened marginally, survey data from the statistical office Istat showed on Thursday.

Consumer sentiment dropped to 96.6 in November from 97.4 in the previous month. The expected score was 97.2.

Among components, the economic climate index declined to 97.8 in November from 99.7 in October, and the future climate worsened from 95.0 to 93.8. Meanwhile, the index measuring the personal climate dropped slightly to 96.2 from 96.6, and the current climate index fell to 98.7 from 99.2.

The unfavorable evolution in consumer confidence was mainly due to the worsening of both expectations on unemployment and opinions on the opportunity to purchase durable goods in the current phase, the survey said.

The data also showed that the composite confidence index decreased somewhat to 93.1 in November from 93.4 in October.

The manufacturing confidence index rose to 86.5 from 85.8 as the assessments on the level of orders improved. Similarly, the retail trade confidence strengthened to 106.7 from 103.8. On the other hand, the morale weakened in construction and market services.