Italy: Political crisis brings consumer confidence to its lowest value since August 2017
The consumer confidence index released by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) fell to 113.7 points in May from a revised 116.9 points in April (previously reported: 117.1). The reading represents the lowest value in nine months and came short of market expectations.
May’s reading reflected a broad-based worsening. It was strongly affected by a sharp deterioration in consumers’ assessments of the current general economic situation and of their expectations on the future general economic situation. Moreover, both their assessments of their personal economic situations and their expectations on their future personal economic situations worsened. Furthermore, their willingness to buy big-ticket and their unemployment expectations deteriorated.
The results of the survey suggest that consumer sentiment was notably affected by the political turbulence which the country went through in May.