Italy Consumer Confidence, Business Morale Improves In October

(RTTNews) - Italy's consumer confidence rose further in October to the highest level in eight months, and composite business confidence also strengthened on the back of an overall improvement in the assessments of industrial and retail entrepreneurs, survey data from the statistical office Istat showed on Tuesday.

Consumer sentiment improved to 97.6 in October from 96.8 in the previous month. However, any reading below indicates a pessimistic outlook.

Among components, the economic climate index climbed to 99.3 in October from 98.8 in September, and the future climate index increased from 92.6 to 94.1. The index measuring the personal climate also rose to 97.0 from 96.0, and the current climate index advanced to 100.2 from 99.9.

The data also showed that the composite confidence index improved to an 8-month high of 94.3 in October from 93.7 in September. The manufacturing confidence index strengthened from 87.4 to 88.3.

The confidence indicator for the retail sector advanced notably to 105.0 from 101.8, while a decrease was seen in market services, with the corresponding index falling to 95.0 from 95.6.