ROME (ITALPRESS) – In March 2025, Istat estimates a worsening of business sentiment: consumer confidence drops from 98.8 to 95.0 and the composite indicator of business confidence drops from 94.7 to 93.3.
Among consumers, there is a marked deterioration in economic and future climate (the former decreases from 100.2 to 93.2 and the latter from 96.6 to 91.1); personal and current climate show a smaller decrease (from 98.3 to 95.7 and from 100.5 to 97.9, respectively).
With reference to businesses, confidence trends show heterogeneous signals in the surveyed industries: the confidence index decreases in services (from 97.4 to 94.5) and manufacturing (from 86.9 to 86.0), remains basically stable in retail trade (from 104.0 to 103.9) and increases in construction (from 103.4 to 104.6).
As for the components of the confidence indexes, in manufacturing, judgments on orders deteriorate, inventories are judged to be accumulating, and production expectations are rising slightly. In construction, deteriorating order judgments are combined with a marked improvement in employment expectations at the firm.
In relation to market services, all components show negative dynamics while in retail trade, only sales expectations are estimated to improve, spread to both large and traditional retailers.
“In March 2025, the business confidence index declines for the second consecutive month, signaling overall negative sentiment among entrepreneurs; however, positive signals come from expectations on production in manufacturing, expectations on employment in construction and expectations on sales in retail trade,” Istat comments. The deterioration in consumer confidence expresses a generalized worsening of consumer opinions; exceptions to this are assessments of the opportunity to save at the current stage, the balance of which increases sharply.”
-Photo IPA Agency-.
(ITALPRESS).
