Italy’s consumer confidence surged to its highest level in nearly a quarter-century in September, Italy’s National Statistics Institute said Friday.
Spurred by what the institute, best known as ISTAT, said was “widespread optimism, especially regarding the general and current economic situation” due to the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, the consumer confidence index surged to 119.6 points in this month’s survey, up from 116.2 points in the August survey.
Adjusted for changes in the way the index is calculated, the September figure is the highest since January 1998, when ISTAT first started conducting the survey.
ISTAT’s measure of consumer sentiment on the overall economic climate surged to 143.6 points compared to 132.4 points in August, the biggest rise among the sub-indexes that make up the survey.
Sentiment about the current climate climbed to 116.1 points from 112.0 points over the same span and sentiment about the future economic climate showed a modest month-on-month rise, to 124.7 from 122.5 points.
Business confidence declined slightly in September to 113.8 points from 114.0 points a month earlier. Related sub-indexes showed similarly modest changes with confidence in manufacturing slipping to 113.0 points from 113.2 points, business confidence in the construction sector climbing slightly to 155.5 points from 153.8 points previously, and market services inching higher to 112.8 points from 111.8 points.
Based on surveys of business owners and consumers, all the indexes and sub-indexes are compared to a 100-point baseline level from 2010.
