Italy: Consumer confidence plunges to over six-year low in May
The consumer confidence index released by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) fell to 94.3 in May from March’s 100.1 (the last preceding month for which data is available), marking the worst print since December 2013.
May’s decline came on the back of a broad-based deterioration in the economic, personal, current and future components. That said, the economic and current components were the ones that suffered the largest drops. Households’ assessments of the current general economic situation and their expectations on the future general economic situation nosedived in April, and their expectations on future unemployment worsened dramatically. Moreover, consumers’ assessments of their current financial situation deteriorated notably, and they were markedly less willing to purchase big-ticket durable goods.