With reference to the business confidence climate, the Istat Economic Sentiment Indicator (IESI) weakened from 108.6 to 108.3.
The confidence climate in manufacturing slipped from 101.2 to 100.3. Both expectations on production and assessments on order books showed a worsening (the related balances of variables passed from 4.1 to 3.6 and from minus 10.8 to minus 12.8, respectively), while a slight increase was reported in the level of inventories (the balance of the variable passed from 4.6 to 4.8), as per Istat.
The retail trade confidence index extended its downward path varying from 111.4 to 110.5. Negative developments were due to the worsening in business activity assessments, while the view on future sales improved and level of inventories lowered. The related balances moved from 26.2 to 19.2, from 23 to 25.4 and from 7.1 to 5.4, respectively.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DP)