Italian business confidence index reach record high

Italian business confidence increased in November 2013, reflecting a growing of trust in manufacturing, retail commerce and market's services sectors, the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT) said on Thursday. The composite business confidence index rose to 83.2 in November from 79.9 in October, according to latest ISTAT data, which marks its best result since July 2012. Manufacturing confidence index (which covers around 4 thousands companies in Italy) marked the best outcome from August 2011. It increased from 97.4 in October to 98.1 in November, as a result of the favorable trend in order books and production's forecast especially. A less optimistic sentiment emerged in construction, whose specific confidence index dropped slightly to 80.0 in November from 80.9 in October 2013. The overall advance of the economic sentiment indicator, ISTAT said, reflected the specific improvement of sub-indicators for consumer goods (from 97.2 to 97.5), intermediate goods (from 99.0 to 99.2) and capital goods (from 95.4 to 97.9). Regarding the commerce sector, the highest increase of confidence index was shown by large-scale distributors (from 88.0 to 91.2), followed by retail trade (from 89.4 to 90.7). Latest data on consumer confidence in Italy, released on Tuesday, was also positive. The index rose from 97.3 in October to 98.3 in November, according to ISTAT. Italians showed a more optimistic feeling about both the overall economic situation of the country and their private condition as households (regarding family budget, opportunities in future saving and in durable goods' purchasing). Statistics showed that optimism is greater in the northwestern and northeastern regions.