Global| Jan 28 2009Italy's Business Confidence Continues To Drop
Summary
While business sentiment is falling to new lows and very low lows in Italy , the good news is that the pace of decline is letting up. Italy ’s businesses are clearly in bad shape and concerned. But maybe the rate of deterioration and [...]
While business sentiment is falling to new lows and very low lows in Italy , the good news is that the pace of decline is letting up. Italy ’s businesses are clearly in bad shape and concerned. But maybe the rate of deterioration and adverse assessment is slowing down.
In the table below we rank the various components of this measure since 1996 and we find for just about very category there is a new low being made. Inventories are the sole exception and there the bad news is that inventories are generally regarded as high.
In Italy , Silvio Berlusconi's government has approved a stimulus package to kick-start the economy with measures it says are worth 80 billion Euros, but this program largely recycles existing funds and the plan has failed to lift the pessimism that has imbued the Italian economy.
The Italian results fit in with a new leading index result for Europe that finds conditions are still set to deteriorate further. Confidence a for businesses and consumers is still generally either very low and stuck three or has declined across most of the e-Zone.
| Italy ISAE Business Sentiment | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Since Oct 1996 | ||||||
| Jan-09 | Dec-08 | Nov-08 | Oct-08 | Percentile | Rank | |
| Biz Confidence | 65.5 | 66.8 | 71.7 | 76.5 | 0.0 | 148 |
| TOTAL INDUSTRY | ||||||
| Order books & Demand | ||||||
| Total | -58 | -54 | -45 | -38 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Domestic | -63 | -58 | -47 | -39 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Foreign | -59 | -54 | -44 | -33 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Inventories | 9 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 83.3 | 14 |
| Production | -55 | -46 | -37 | -29 | 0.0 | 148 |
| INTERMEDIATE | ||||||
| Order books & Demand | ||||||
| Total | -74 | -68 | -52 | -42 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Domestic | -74 | -69 | -53 | -40 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Foreign | -73 | -67 | -50 | -38 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Inventories | 12 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 93.1 | 4 |
| Production | -65 | -58 | -43 | -29 | 0.0 | 148 |
| INVESTMENT GOODS | ||||||
| Order books & Demand | ||||||
| Total | -62 | -62 | -52 | -39 | 0.0 | 147 |
| Domestic | -65 | -64 | -56 | -44 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Foreign | -54 | -56 | -45 | -27 | 2.5 | 147 |
| Inventories | 7 | 9 | 11 | 6 | 63.2 | 40 |
| Production | -54 | -50 | -41 | -28 | 0.0 | 148 |
| CONSUMER GOODS | ||||||
| Order books & Demand | ||||||
| Total | -47 | -36 | -32 | -33 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Domestic | -48 | -39 | -32 | -34 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Foreign | -54 | -42 | -36 | -32 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Inventories | 7 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 69.2 | 35 |
| Production | -42 | -28 | -27 | -29 | 0.0 | 148 |
| Total number of months: | 148 | |||||
Robert Brusca
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Robert A. Brusca is Chief Economist of Fact and Opinion Economics, a consulting firm he founded in Manhattan. He has been an economist on Wall Street for over 25 years. He has visited central banking and large institutional clients in over 30 countries in his career as an economist. Mr. Brusca was a Divisional Research Chief at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY (Chief of the International Financial markets Division), a Fed Watcher at Irving Trust and Chief Economist at Nikko Securities International. He is widely quoted and appears in various media. Mr. Brusca holds an MA and Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. His research pursues his strong interests in non aligned policy economics as well as international economics. FAO Economics’ research targets investors to assist them in making better investment decisions in stocks, bonds and in a variety of international assets. The company does not manage money and has no conflicts in giving economic advice.
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