Business confidence in Italy fell significantly in August amid rising energy costs as the country prepares for elections, while consumer confidence unexpectedly strengthened.
In particular, the Italian statistics agency ISTAT’s manufacturing confidence index fell to 104.3 in August from 106.4 in July, sliding to a low since last year in March.
The data was broadly expected, however, as the reading was very close to analysts’ forecast in a Reuters poll for a decline to 104.4.
At the same time, ISTAT’s composite business sentiment index, which combines data from the manufacturing, retail trade, construction and services sectors, fell to 109.4 in August compared with 110.7 in July.
But consumer confidence unexpectedly rose this month to 98.3 from 94.8 last month and returned to June levels, well above the average forecast of 92.5 in a Reuters poll.
Source: Capital
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