Italy Consumer Confidence Weakens In June; Business Morale Improves

(RTTNews) - Italy's consumer confidence decreased in June after showing some resilience in the previous month, while composite business confidence rose to the highest level in four months, survey data from the statistical office Istat showed on Friday.

Consumer sentiment dropped to 96.1 in June from 96.5 in the previous month.

Among components, the personal climate index weakened to 94.8 in June from 96.1 in May, and the future climate remained stable at 93.7. The index measuring the current climate dropped to 97.9 from 98.6, while the economic climate index strengthened from 97.5 to 99.6.

The data also showed that the composite business confidence index climbed to 93.9 in June from 93.1 in May.

The survey revealed that positive signals came from all subsectors except retail trade.

The manufacturing index increased to 87.3 from 86.6 in May amid positive production expectations.

The morale improved strongly in construction, with the corresponding index rising to 103.4 from 102.1. Similarly, confidence in the market services rose to 95.6 from 94.5. On the other hand, the confidence indicator for the retail trade dropped to 101.9 from 102.8.

Separate official data showed that Italy's producer price inflation eased to a 5-month low of 1.7 percent in May from 2.6 percent in April. Monthly, the decline in producer prices softened to 0.7 percent from 2.2 percent.

The annual price growth in consumer goods eased to 1.6 percent from 1.8 percent, and that for intermediate goods slowed to 0.6 percent from 0.8 percent.