Italy: Consumer confidence tumbles in March amid the spread of coronavirus and lockdown measures
The consumer confidence index released by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) slumped to 101.0 in March from February’s 110.9, hit by the rapid spread of Covid-19 and the lockdown imposed by the Italian government.
March’s plunge came on the back of a broad-based deterioration in the economic, personal, current and future components. That said, the economic and future components plummeted in March, while the personal and current components saw much more limited declines. Expectations on future unemployment and on the future general economic situation as well as consumers’ willingness to purchase big-ticket durable goods worsened dramatically in March. Meanwhile, expectations of future saving opportunities, consumers’ expectations on their future economic situation and their assessments of the current general economic situation worsened notably, although to a lesser extent.